Mass Effect: The Bat's Legacy
by Magik8ball
Summary: This idea came about while playing Mass Effect and visualizing what Batman could do with all the technology and story elements available in the Mass Effect Universe. This is a complete amalgamation of the two concepts and involves totally new characters. Purely fanfiction, hope you enjoy. I read all comments and will try to incorporate any ideas into story, thanks.
1. Chapter 1

**Mass Effect-The Bat's Legacy**

_This is what I have trained for - _thought a dark figure that lurched in the shadows high atop the wide city landscape. The light dampeners had kicked in; it was dark out, darker than usual. Buildings and hover cars filled the dark sky with luminescent light.

The man shifted his weight to his other leg. He was not nervous; his training did not allow him to be nervous. He was excited and alert at the same time. Everything he had done for the past twenty years had led to this moment. The stalker of the night peered down to a ledge where several people were scurrying about. A zooming in sound hissed in the night as the figure used his ocular enhancers to get a better look at what was happening on the ledge below.

Humans and Batarians were busy loading up a cargo hover truck. They were loading large crates into the truck. In clear view were four humans, three male and one female. Doing most of the heavy lifting were the two Batarians, grunting as they together lifted a large crate. The grunts were picked up over the long range sonar equipped in the dark figure's helmet. He also picked up another voice not seen with the others, male, human. He was barking orders to the batarian workers. The batarians and other humans stop working and started yelling back at the man apparently in charge.

_It's now or never_-The black clad man leaped from the high ledge. The cape activated just as it should thought the man. It was the first time he had used it to glide through the air, after experimenting with different fabrics. It was a flexible polymer that was tough enough to withstand most cuts and even some projectiles. It activated when a current was put through it and became stiff enough to glide with. The man had slightly misjudged to jump and with a thought activated the jet boosters on the bottom of his boots. The small engines were completely silent and allowed the man to climb in the sky and position himself directly above the group of smugglers.

Nearly twenty feet above the hover truck the black armored man landed directly on top of it. The humans and batarians jumped back, startled. One of the batarians was the first to speak in his raspy tone "Who is this guy?" Before any of the others could respond, the mysterious figure reached for his left gauntlet which had a glowing black and blue omni-tool on it. He hit a holographic button and a pulse was sent out followed by a fizzing noise as every light within a thirty foot radius went dark.

The smugglers who had sidearms attached to their hips reached for their weapons and opened fire on where they saw the black clad person. Their shots made momentary flashes and they soon discovered that they were shooting at nothing but the air.

The armored man moved unseen and was directly behind the batarian who spoke earlier. With quick timing and flawless technique the armored man wrapped his right arm around the batarian's neck and flipped the alien over his own back, slamming the bulky alien into the metal floor, knocking him unconscious. The others heard the Batarian's fall and quickly began shooting again. The armored man quickly rolled to the side, avoiding the gun fire and at the same time bent his wrists down activating his omni-tools. Two monomolecular, shruiken-like blades fell into both of his hands and just as quickly were thrown with deadly accuracy to knock two different weapons out of the hands of the human smugglers.

The Predator class pistols fell to the ground and even before the smugglers who were carrying them could react they each got the wind knocked out of them with a blast to their chests. The concussive forces originated from the tops of the wrists of the masked man. Three down, four to go.

The mysterious assailant faded into the darkness and was stalking behind one of the female humans. She had no weapon and was scared. "Where is he? What's happening?"

"I don't know, keep your guard up, turn your omni-tool light on would ya?" replied the last remaining human male.

"It's not working, nothing is working. He must have detonated some sort of EMP" noted the scared woman.

"Shut up, both of you" growled the batarian. The burly alien scanned the area with his two pairs of eyes, designed to detect movement.

The night stalker was positioning himself just behind the remaining two human mercenaries, when the batarian spotted them and yelled out "Behind you!" The two humans quickly turned around and noticed the blackened figure moving behind them. Knowing he had been spotted, the masked man grabbed each of the human s shoulders and flipped himself over them landing behind them.

Just as he landed in the middle of the three smugglers, the lights above them flickered on. In broad view now, the masked man stood upright and surrounded his body with the thick black cape, draping it around him. The batarian was the first to attack, by throwing away his weapon in a sort of rage fit and bull rushed the strangely dressed vigilante.

Reacting to the charging batarian, the masked man quickly reached for four-eyed alien's head and slammed it down. The batarian's face crunched onto the caped crusader's knee and was then thrown aside. The crusader then focused all his attention on the remaining humans. They had their weapons ready and just as he turned they unloaded their sidearms. The shots rang out and connected on the vigilante's armored chest. A blueish light flickered as each slug impacted his chest, signifying the shields were still active.

Barely staggered, the black masked man thrust his palms outward towards the two humans and blue lightning sparked from each of his omni-tools. The blue energy reached the humans instantaneously and overloaded their own unseen shields. The sparks also over heated the smugglers weapons, causing them to fall to the ground. The male smuggler was offset by the attack and by the time he looked up to see the vigilante, all he saw was a big black boot before it slammed into him face.

The woman looked at her partner fall unconscious to the floor and then panned slowly to the towering black figure standing in front of her. The caped man took one step towards the frightened woman when a voice came from inside the masked man's helmet.

"Incendiary projectile incoming, Sir". The vigilante whipped around in time to see the flaming tech hurling towards him. He flipped backwards, narrowly avoiding the scorching flames.

"Thanks Alfred" the vigilante muttered under his breath.

"That's why I am here, Sir" The night stalker let a small chuckle out underneath his sealed helmet, noting the sarcasm in the A.I.'s voice. The crusader turned to face the source of the tech attack.

"So you're the one causing all this trouble, it was hard enough getting the lights back on. You come in here, take down all my guys and for what?" The caped man stood upright and once again draped his thick cape around him, saying nothing. The apparent leader stood in front of him with the scared female mercenary behind him. "Briggs, pull yourself together" The cowering mercenary behind the crusader stood up, still breathing hard and readied her weapon. "Ok bud, time to stop playing hero. What do you think your chances are?"

Unbeknownst to the mercenaries, the steadfast crusader reached with his right hand to behind his belt and equipped a grapple line to his omni-tool. In an instant, the masked man thrust his right wrist towards the woman behind him as a metallic wire shot out of it and connected right above her collarbone. Magnetically attached to her slightly armored clothing, the vigilante yanked on the line forcing the woman at him. When within range, the masked man grabbed the woman's clothing and head-butted her, causing her to fall.

As soon as the female had fallen to the ground, rifle fire opened up from behind the vigilante. The first shot missed, flying just over his left shoulder. This gave the caped man enough time to duck and shift quickly to his right. He spun around and lifted his right arm and pointed it towards the mercenary leader who was shooting a Mattock class assault rifle. Two shots strike the masked man in his chest, but he did not falter. Three curved spikes on his right forearm, which were originally pointed towards him, repositioned to face the shooter.

By the time the third and fourth shot were fired, the spikes started to glow a dark blue and fired out, flying towards the gunman. The spikes struck the mercenary up his left side, with one in his rib cage and two in his arm. The sudden pain caused the smuggler to stagger back in pain and back into a wall behind him. The Mattock rifle fell to the ground as the mercenary attempted to remove the spikes from his arm, when the masked man walked up to him.

The mercenary leader was about to say something, but before he could get anything out the masked man grabbed the smuggler's armor just below his neck and effortlessly lifted him into the air. Were the man smaller, the vigilante would be able to do this without aid. But because the smuggler leader was large and heavy, the eezo-assisted actuators located in all the joints of his armored suit helped.

"What do you want, who are you man?" gurgled the now frightened smuggler.

The caped crusader tightened his grip and brought the mercenary to eye level, "I'm Batman" he growled as he smashed the mercenary against the steel wall, letting him slide down to the floor unconscious. Batman scanned the area at the mercenaries on the floor and detached a small device from his belt. He tapped the top of the small thimble like device, activating it and causing a slight hum to come from it. Tossing the device to the ground and satisfied at his work, Batman looked up above him and then jettisoned into the sky. The jets under his boots let him fly to a ledge high above the city skyline.

Batman examined the entire region from the top of the tall building. He noted the four other arms of the Citadel and watched as several frigates and other vessels jumped across the skyline. A familiar voice buzzed in his head, "Successful first run, wouldn't you say sir?"

He exhaled; calming himself as slowly nodded his head, "It's a start"


	2. Chapter 2

_15 years earlier_

"Welcome home, Master Kane" said the synthesized voice, as a young man strode through metallic slide door and into the large manor. The light brown haired, twenty year old man had only one large bag wrapped around his chest. He had a dirty look to him, as though he hadn't had a shower in months and his hair had grown long, past his ears

"I'm not staying long" the weary traveler retorted as he lifted his bag over his head and dropped it on the floor.

"Sir, don't you think Casey Kane should make an appearance after his five year hiatus?"

Hearing someone call him by his full name, brought it all back again for that one moment. He had just spent that last five years travelling over the Eastern part of Earth. He left when he was 15 years old. He got fed up with the people talking behind his back and always giving him a special treatment. It had been that way since the day his parents were shot down in front of him, when he was only 10 years old.

Casey's father had been a renowned tech specialist, creating some of the most influential programs in leading virtual intelligences. And his mother had been a doctor with the Alliance military. Both of them were very giving, creating one of the largest charity foundations humanity had ever known. Kane's Charity was first established on Earth and grew to be featured on every continent and eventually taken to the stars of Citadel space.

On that fateful day, the Kane family was taking a nice family weekend off to visit some of the other Citadel sites. Before they left though, Casey's father had to take care of some business at the Kane's Charity Citadel House. They had their automated vehicle park and they made their way into the main lobby. The charity took care of numerous ventures from rebuilding homes, disaster relief or homelessness. That day when the two CEOs of the charity along with their ten year old came into the lobby, they were met with many inquiring and questioning people. The family was used to the crowds and publicity.

In the large lobby area was three groups of people, those crowding around the Kane's, the employees and a small group of homeless trying to find help. Casey's father and mother were busy signing some papers, leaving young Casey sitting on a couch nearby. He was kicking his feet with an innocent smile, waiting for his parents to be done with their business. As he scanned the room, he briefly locked eyes with a man who was sitting at a table across the lobby. The dirty looking man was playing with an antique set of cards with two other homeless people. He gave an angry snarl to the young boy and then went back to gambling.

Young Casey frowned and quickly smiled again seeing his parents conclude their business and start making their way towards him. They took him by the hand and began their way to the exit. Security was on hand now and kept most of the photographers and other media at bay. The Kane family strode the doors, where the crowd of homeless was waiting for appointments. There were tables and the same man playing cards, gathered his cards and angrily stormed towards the same door.

Casey's father had reached the door first and being the ever thoughtful person he was, he opened the sliding door and gestured for the gambler to go first with a smile. The gambler walked midway through the doorway and then paused. He turned around slowly and unholstered a hidden Phalanx pistol from his belt.

"Looks like my luck has changed" the gambler sneered as he slowly walked forward with the heavy pistol pointed directly at charitable billionaire's throat.

"We can work this out" started the elder Kane as he put his left hand up and his other around his wife, "What do you want?" Casey was standing behind them both, terrified as to what was happening. He noticed security had circled them with weapons drawn.

The desperate gambler shook the gun back and forth, "Tell them to put their weapons on the ground, NOW!"

"Okay, settle down" calmly said Casey's father, "put the guns down guys. I don't think he wants to hurt us, right?" he gestured back at the gambler.

"I know who you are; hell the whole galaxy knows who you two are. The Kane family: The charitable billionaires. And here I thought my day was going to be unlucky" smirked the gambler.

"Okay, here's my credit chit, all the money you could possible want. Now we have done everything you have asked."

The gambler took the chit, with his gun still pointed at the man's face. He rocked his head side to side and slowly, "Not quite," he then looked directly at the young Casey, who peeked around his father's side, "it's too bad kid, the game was rigged from the beginning.

The young boy stood in horror as he heard two shots ring out followed by another. Everything slowed down and faded into silence. Casey saw his father fall first, then his mother on top of him. The young Kane dropped to his knees to comfort his parents, but they were already gone.

Security scrambled in slow motion to get their weapons, but it was too late. The gambler had already fled, running as fast as he could.

People hurried, screaming and trying to make sense of the chaos, but Casey was slumped over the bodies of the only two people who mattered in his life. He had a single tear fall from his sullen eyes, as he looked around at the whirling people. His whole world had just collapsed around him.

After that day, everything had changed. Casey didn't speak to anyone for days, instead he had to listen to lawyers and bankers talk day after day about what to do with the Kane fortune. The newly orphaned Casey didn't care though, everything felt numb to him. A few days after the incident, he was sitting in one of the large business rooms. The adults around him bickered on, but Casey wasn't paying attention. He heard someone mention his parents, and he nearly broke down in tears right then and there. Suddenly the lights flickered in the room, causing everyone to stop talking; even Casey started to look around curious.

"I apologize for the dramatic entrance gentlemen, but I needed to access your systems", chimed the well-mannered synthetic voice, "I am Alfred, the personal assistant to the Kane's. I have the last will and testament of Sir Kane, which states that young Master Casey will continue to live in his family estate after the deaths of Mister and Misses Kane. He will be under my care with supervision with key members of the charity to visit regularly. Also I will be integrating myself more into your systems as acting chairman until Master Casey turns 18. I have a vehicle waiting for him outside, good day gentleman."

The voiced then buzzed off and the other members of the board made looks at each other and then agreed to the terms and signed the holo pads, making it official. Casey left the building and then went home with Alfred. Happy to back somewhere he knows and with someone who was as close as family, Casey tried to settle back into his life.

This was the setup for years, Casey still attended school and tried to live his life as well as he could, but there was always an underling feeling that he didn't belong. He heard the things people were saying about him, snickering behind his back. He made friends, but he never really knew if they really liked him or if they just felt sorry for him. He did his best to get through the days, but eventually it all started to catch up with him. He began to get fed up with the glares and jeers.

When he was fifteen years old, he had just got back from a school field trip. He was greeted by Alfred, but did not answer him back; instead he paced the large hall way back and forth. Finally he told Alfred that he wanted to leave, go far away so no one would find him. Alfred questioned why and he replied that he wanted to find a way to channel his rage and get away from it all. Alfred hesitated to answer, but the AI cared about the boy and so agreed, but on one condition, he builds a portable unit so that Alfred could accompany him.

"No, this is something I need to do on my own Alfred. I need you to stay here and take care of my Dad's legacy."

"It is your legacy now sir, but I will stay here. Any idea where you will be go first?"

"Earth"

That was five years ago. Now Casey was twenty years old, and in total control of his family's charity. He was older, stronger. He had travelled all over Earth in the five long years. He was in Asia, learning ancient mediation and martial arts to channel his young rage and emotions. He then wanted to learn more and mastered samurai ways as well as making his way to Africa, to learn methods of old warriors. When he turned eighteen, he had to come to a Kane embassy in the U.S to sign papers and while there found the champions of boxer and judo, studying under them. This was all he did for five years, train and learn all he could, but it was never enough.

He had found ways to calm himself, but over time he wanted to do more, he wanted to help others in ways no one could. He learned to fight and ways to stay completely hidden. Now home, he wanted to put the skills to use.

"Alfred," Casey said as he munched on a sandwich made by Alfred in the fridge, "I have seen so much, travelled the world. I can control my anger and pain; I learned to blend with shadows, to use fear to control my enemies and never to be seen. I have tools and skills, but I just don't know what to do with them. " Casey paused, "There is a whole new galaxy out there. I want to see it all, I want to fight to protect people and I know how."

"How is that sir?"

"I am going to join the Alliance"


	3. Chapter 3

_Present Day_

"Oh Casey, you simply must meet the rising star of the political world, Mr. Udina" said a pompous human female, gesturing Casey to follow her.

"Yes, perhaps later, I hear the buffet calling" smiled the young bachelor as he excused himself. He made his way through the crowd, and finally made it to the wall on the other side. He crossed his arms and sighed, leaning against the wall.

"Done socializing already, Master Kane?" chimed a voice from the ear piece looped around Casey's right ear.

"I can't stand this crowd Alfred, you know that."

"I do, but this is the life you have embraced, spending your days here as Casey Kane and nights as Batman"

Casey nodded to himself, recalling the night before as he revealed himself to the criminal underworld. He remembered how good it felt to finally put all that he had learned to use and scare those who turned to a life of injustice. "Ah, Mr. Kane, so nice to meet you" interrupted a deep voice coming from a turian, "I am Primarch Fedorian of the Turian Hierarchy."

Casey sighed in his head, but put on a smile and shook the three fingered hand, "Your honor, a pleasure to meet you."

"Your father and I started doing work together many years ago and I was hoping to talk to you about continuing that business."

"Yes I am sure we could work something…out" Casey hesitated because heard a rumbling. Eventually the other guests of the ball heard the noise as well. Casey looked up at an old fashioned ceiling window and saw the glass shatter.

Intruders poured through the hole and landed in the crowd of scared people. Casey had a plan to duck out and get to his car outside the building, but before he could act the people dressed in black shot warning shots in the air.

"Nobody move!" yelled one of the armed people, his voice sounded like a drell to Casey.

One of the other henchmen, a bulky batarian, rushed over near Casey waving a Revenant assault rifle. Casey breathed deep, realizing he wasn't going to get to his vehicle. So he had to go to plan B. As soon as the batarian thug turned his back to yell at other guests, Casey put his hands on his belt, unhinging to small gloves. He discreetly slipped on the black fingerless gloves and activated them by making two fists. Black and blue mini omni-tools lit up on the gloves. When he saw his moment he straightened his left fingers and fired three smoke pellets in different locations. The thick smoke quickly filled the entire room.

The crew was in disarray, not knowing what was happening. Casey put his thumbs over the top of his ears and brought them down to the bottom, leaving behind ear pieces. He quickly activated them, causing a blue holo screen to appear between the two pieces across his eyes. He could see everything now, all the guests and all eleven of the armed thugs.

He painted each of the criminals with a red highlight and started to run towards the batarian closest to him. Casey grabbed the batarian's face from behind pulled him down on top of his unarmored knee. As the alien fell unconscious he let off three shots of his rifle, which hit the ceiling. The others heard and all turned to where the rounds came from.

The ball guests had all dropped to the floor after the batarian's shots. The other thugs shot wildly into the smoke, hitting nothing. Casey had kneeled down and unhooked a mini-batarang from the top of his right glove, with a tracker Casey marked each of the gunman's shooting hands and let the batarang fly. It twirled around and cut each of the gunmen's hands, causing them to drop their weapons. The gyro stabled blade continued to fly after each cut and then promptly returned to Casey's glove.

All the thugs held their wounds as they continued to look for what was happening to them. "Come out you coward! Stop hiding in the smoke. All we want is all these good people's extra money" yelled the drell, scanning the smoke.

Casey crept towards the group of thugs, the closest one being a human male. He was about eight feet from the mercenary when he raised his left hand and let a small grapple line shoot through the air and attach to the man's chest. Caught off guard and pulled towards Casey, the human was knocked out cold when Casey brought a fist to his face. Kane turned on electric knuckles on the glove, adding a stunning effect to each of his blows. The remaining nine thugs were all in a group now, scared. Casey couldn't stop a smile spreading across his face as he charged into the bewildered group.

His attacks were quick and precise, hitting pressure points on the various aliens and humans. His kicks broke bones and his punches shocked and stunned everyone they hit. He cleared though five of the thugs with ease. Two of the mercenaries, both turian, spotted Casey moving through the group and primed the floor below them with proximity mines shot from their omni-tools.

Casey spotted the four mines on the floor and while vaulting through the air, he pointed his palms towards the mines, shooting electricity out of them, disarming the mines. He landed directly in front of the two turians, and before they could do anything, Casey grabbed the sides of both of their heads, slamming them into each other. Casey tossed them aside.

The smoke was starting to clear now; the remaining two thieves knew that their plan was not going to work anymore. They started to attach themselves to the repel lines that they came down on and zipped back up. Casey watched them rise off the ground and unable to get close enough to them, he pointed his right gloved hand at the drell in charge of the group. A tiny black disc shot from the side of the glove and stuck to the drell's backside as he disappeared in the hole in the ceiling.

Before the smoke completely cleared, Casey checked his holo display and made sure the tracking bug was functioning. The drell was on the move, and fast. Casey made his way through the confused crowd and to the exit.

"Alfred, ready the car and keep tracking the thief" grunted Casey as he cleared a long stairwell down to the car lot.

"On it sir, the car is ready and your thief is currently traveling north towards the presidium, likely in a vehicle."

The sleek black vehicle was waiting for Casey as a door slid open into the open car lot. Casey started towards the vehicle, unbuttoning his tuxedo. The car door opened as he approached and he quickly got in the backseat. Settled in, the chair tilted back and Casey disappeared into the back of the car.

The Batman armor came from all sides of the chamber inside the vehicle, attaching to Casey. The boots and gauntlets were first, followed by the shoulder pieces. The chest armor was set with a distinct bat symbol in the center. Finally the air tight helmet was placed, followed by a long, thick black cape.

"Get directly over them Alfred" said the armor clad man as he checked his utility gauntlets and belt.

"Working on it sir" replied the sophisticated intelligence, as it weaved in-between traffic with ease, catching up to the cargo vehicle ahead of them. Alfred piloted the hover vehicle so that it was soaring directly above the thieves' vehicle. "Ready when you are sir."

Without a word, the dark knight hit a red button in the car and the floor vanished below him. The caped crusader plummeted down and opened his cape just before landing on the windshield of the cargo truck. His boots magnetized to the hood of the hover truck, so that he would not fall.

The driver was not the drell, but instead a surprised salarian. Batman recognized him from the attempted heist. The drell leader was sitting in the passenger seat with the same surprised look on his reptilian face. Batman reached back and plunged a powerful armored fist through the glass polymer windshield, shattering a hole in it. Through the windshield, the caped knight grabbed the handle of the vehicle.

The salarian couldn't move the controls of the truck, as it started to descend. The dark knight looked behind him, noticing the rapid descent towards a building rooftop. He removed his fist from the windshield and moved towards the back of the truck and jumped just before the vehicle landed with a crash.

The salarian was slumped over in the driver seat with green blood on his head. He coughed, but remained with his eyes closed. The drell looked his partner over and grunted as he waved him off and made his way out of the wrecked vehicle. Dark blood stained the drell's black clothing, as he limped to get to the back of the truck. He turned the corner of the vehicle and was horrified to see two piercing white eyes staring back at him. The drell was startled and began to back up as the black clad figure continued to stare.

"You're him aren't you? Heard through the grapevine, last night some boys got taken down by some fool in a bat costume" the drell took a long, painful breath, "well it looks like for once the stories are true."

Batman stood still watching, analyzing the drell with his heads up display. He figured out this drell, with an alias of Snider, had a record. He was frequently running with gangs and involved in armed larceny. With his quick analysis complete, the caped knight pulled a pair of titanium cuffs from his belt and aptly walked towards the injured drell.

Snider began to laugh, which caused him to start coughing blood. "Hey Butch, you still in there?" called out the smiling drell. Nothing happened, as Batman now stood right in front of the drell with the handcuffs ready.

"Butch?!" yelled Snider, more desperately. Batman was ignoring him as he slipped the cuffs of the drell's four fingered hands.

-Krack!-

Batman paused and turned his head to the origin of the loud noise. His HUD display showed no movement and no source to the noise. Just as he was about to look away, another loud bang came from the back of the cargo truck.

A final crack came from the vehicle as metal was bent and erupted from the side of the cargo bed. Out stepped a large helmeted krogan wearing dark red armor.

"Hey there Butch, little help?" asked the smiling drell.

Batman's HUD began analyzing immediately and before he turned around to confront the new threat, he fastened the cuffs tightly on the drell's wrists. He then lifted the drell off the ground by grabbing his dark clothes and drop kicked him backwards onto the floor.

With all his attention now focused on the large krogan in front of him, the dark knight began to walk perpendicular to the krogan.

"Butch don't talk, but he doesn't need to talk to knock your teeth in" blurted out Snider from the floor.

Batman ignored the drell. He had faced krogan before, packs of them. This one was no different. Sizing up his enemy, Batman stopped walking and draped his cape around himself, goading his enemy to attack. The krogan snorted and started to charge towards the waiting knight.

Batman judged he had approximately five seconds before the charging behemoth reached him and flattened him into the concrete. Preparing for the attack, Batman gathered three mini-bombs in his hands and waited for the krogan to get close enough. When the large alien was only feet away, Batman vaulted himself over top the krogan, placing the bombs on the krogan's back. The knight landed behind the still charging krogan.

A second later the krogan realized where his adversary had gone and quickly turned around. Prepping for another rampage, the krogan lowered himself, but before he could start running the bombs detonated.

The blast caused the krogan to fall to the ground. Unfazed by the attack, the krogan got back up on its feet, faster than his size would dictate. Batman had turned around and took a defensive stance, ready to fight the creature that was four times his weight.

The krogan stood up and saw the ready bat. Butch, the krogan, growled as he swiped at the armored man with both of his powerful arms. But the large alien's arms passed right through the dark knight. Momentarily confused, the krogan heard a beeping noise and looked down to see two proximity mines at his feet. The krogan equivalent to a sigh could barely be heard as the mines exploded below him.

Sending him into the air and thudding to the ground, Butch didn't have a chance to stand up. Batman emerged from the shadows cast by the other buildings around them. His decoy had worked just as he planned, leading the krogon directly on top of his mines. Casey learned long ago how to deal with krogan: hit them hard and hit them fast.

Before the krogan could get up from the mines, Batman came from the shadows and brought a strong boot to the face of the krogan. Butch growled under his helmet and recovered from the attack and pushed himself back to his feet. Batman was still surprised something so big could move so fast, faster than any krogan he had seen before. Batman took the momentary lull to strike the krogan again, this time with a fist to the face.

The krogan was expecting the attack and grabbed the gauntlet in the air. The alien then twirled the caped crusader around and tossed him several feet away. Batman rolled, regaining himself readying himself for the next bout.

"Freeze! This is Citadel Security, stand down or prepared to be fired upon!" shouted a stern voice from voice amplifier on a hovering security gun ship. Lights emitted from the ship, shining down on the two combatants.

Batman went into a defensive stance, feeling exposed in the light. He looked the krogan who began to ready a weapon that was strapped to his back. Batman's eyes widened under his helmet, he recognized the weapon as a ML-77 missile launcher. Reacting quickly, he twisted his wrist to release a batarang into his palm. Reaching back he aimed for the weapon-

"Drop your weapons or we will fire!"

Batman glanced at the gunship and squinted, causing his ocular apparatus to zoom in on the weapons. The ship had a mounted chain gun; something that if fired directly at him would shred through his armor, so he cautiously lowered the sharpened batarang.

Butch however did not comply; he aimed the weapon and shot two missiles at the hovering ship.

Batman watched in horror as the gunship's engines were blew out and started to fall. He shot a look to the krogan who was already leaving, grabbing the cuffed drell off the ground and throwing him over his shoulder. The krogan looked back at Batman and then turned and left, vanishing.

Batman scowled under his helmet, but he knew what he had to do. He whipped around and started to sprint towards the edge of the building. Without hesitation he leaped off the edge of the building, following the smoke trail of the crashing gunship. To catch up to it, Batman activated his jet boots. Reaching the door of the gunship, the armored knight's boots once again magnetized him to the hull. He looked inside and saw three officers, two unconscious and one struggling to level the ship.

Batman knew he only had seconds before the ship would hit the ground of the Citadel, so he worked fast. He grabbed the two unconscious officers first and unhooked a grapple line off his belt and tied them together. He then looped the line so that they were connected to one line. Now looking at the third officer, "Get over here!" Batman yelled in his synthesized voice loud enough so that the officer could hear him over the noise of the crashing ship.

The officer tried getting out of his seat, but was unable. "I'm stuck, the belt is broken!" he yelled back.

Batman carefully made his way to the front seat, where the officer was seated, and saw the belt buckle had been melted. The dark knight bent down and used the three blades mounted on his right gauntlet to cut the belt. "Come one" he growled as he grabbed the now free officer. He looped his remaining length of grapple line around the officer, "Hold on!" The officer grabbed the line, as Batman leapt out with the officers all dangling on the same line.

He pointed his wrist up towards the building and let the other end of the grapple line fly and connect with the building. For a few seconds they were in free fall and then the line tightened. Batman howled in pain as the weight of him and the three adult men popped his shoulder out. He swung around and was heading towards the building. Together the four of them collided with the building, causing a window to break. All four men flew through the window and into the office building.

The employees gathered around the men asking what they could do to help. Batman was the first to his feet. He stood up and held his right shoulder, "These men need medical help" the deep voice murmured. Turning around, Batman took a quick second to take a breath and then leapt back out the window.

Opening his cape, he activated his jet boots to rocket him back to the top of the building. As he soared upward, he noted making the jets stronger, because as of now they could only carry him and possibly one other person, hence the grapple line rescue for the C-Sec officers.

He reached the top and scanned the area, realizing what he already knew; the thieves were gone. He shook his head, "Alfred, what about the tracker?"

"Three feet to your left sir"

Batman looked left and saw the small black disc on the ground. He slowly walked to it and winced from his shoulder pain as he bent over to pick it up. He walked back to the ledge and peered down to see the smoke still rising from the crash. He wasn't worried; at the bottom of the Citadel is nothing but empty buildings with storage and generators. He looked up to see incoming security vehicles with more gunships.

"Bring the car around Alfred, time to go home."


	4. Chapter 4

_12 years earlier_

"Ensign Kane, please sit down" gestured the high ranking military official inside the large office. The Ensign strode to a chair in front of the large desk. He had dress blues on, with several medals and accommodations displayed on his uniform. The young officer took a seat and sat straight.

"How have you been, son?" asked the senior officer in a relaxed manner.

"Good sir, our squad just got done with a tour patrolling the outer planets, ensuring our colonies were fortified and trained."

"Good, good. Look, let's get down to brass tacks here. You have been in the Alliance military for three years now and have risen in the ranks quite fast" the senior officer said as he read from a file. "You have proved yourself an exceptional soldier, rescuing soldiers from behind lines, to dealing with smugglers and everything in between."

"Thank you sir" nodded Ensign Kane.

"The thing that concerns me however is that, in your record it shows that you employ a non-lethal method to combat, even in the direst of situations."

Casey did not say anything, simply nodding.

"But, even when all seemed up shit creek, you always complete the objective without a causality. That's impressive to say the least."

"Thank you, sir."

"Don't thank me yet. Can you explain to me why we should keep a soldier in the Alliance that is unwilling to kill when necessary for his species?"

Casey took a deep breath, "There are better ways to deal with enemies. Death affected my life in a way that I never want to see happen to anyone else. No one deserves to die. That is why I will not kill anyone. Ever."

"Yes, I know of the tragedy that took your parents away, I'm sorry son. But would you then consider yourself a pacifist?"

"No," quickly replied Casey, "Violence is necessary. Inflicting pain, either physical or mental, is the only way people understand what they have done. I'm not a pacifist, my record shows that. I will do whatever it takes to help others, but I will not kill."

The Captain sat back in his chair, thinking to himself. He stared at the young Ensign for a few seconds and then leaned back to the desk.

"Well, I've heard all I need to." The elder man stood up and put his hand out. "Congratulations."

Casey stood with the man and shook his outstretched hand, but had a confused look on his face, "Thank you sir, but for what?"

"Well I had to talk to you first before I approved you for N7 training. And although your methods are different, different may be just what that program needs. Good luck soldier." The military man then saluted and promptly dismissed Casey. After that Casey was transferred to the facility in Brazil to begin N7 training with the best operatives on Earth.

_10 years earlier_

Training at the Interplanetary Combatives Training facility is said to be one of the most grueling experiences for soldiers. There, they train for twenty hours a day with little food or sleep and are expected to perform difficult combat exercises. Those who excel earn N1 rank and then are put through more advanced training. This training includes zero-G combat, combat diving, trauma care for human and alien alike and the most intense combat instruction.

Only the most elite warriors earn N6, it shows that they have learned all there is to know and that the only way to learn more is through actual combat experience. This is the only way to earn the coveted N7 rank.

Casey had excelled in all his training and was among the top in his class. After attaining N6 rank, he was put on numerous combat missions, all of which he succeeded in with no enemy causalities. He became well known among the academy as the "Silent Knight" because of his methods of infiltrating areas and then not killing a single person. He worked alone on most of his missions, that way he made sure there were no casualties.

N6's were authorized to carry any equipment they thought was needed to carry out their missions. Casey always made sure to bring along smoke bombs, several double sided throwing knives, and an omni-tool set with electric capabilities. He was told that he only needed one more high profile mission to acquire his N7 rank, but he really didn't care, Casey just wanted to help people and make sure no one died in the process.

"Kane, I have an operation for you. We have a team in need of an infiltration unit for a dire situation" said the older Captain on the holo screen. Casey was heading back to Earth in a shuttle after dealing with an intel recovery mission on the outskirts of Alliance space.

"What's the problem sir?" Casey asked as he stepped closer to the screen.

"A few hours ago, five asari ex-commandos shot their way into the human embassy on Thessia. They killed six and injured twice that. They demanded two human hostages to come with them and so they left with one male and a female ambassador." Pictures of the two kidnapped humans appeared on the screen.

"The commando's former trainer and now matriarch has tracked them down and is willing to help us get the them back. She tracked them to a small facility in the system and has disabled their long range scanners, they have no idea we're coming."

Casey studied the screen, memorizing faces and information.

"The team is already on their way, so prep your gear and head to these coordinates a.s.a.p." the captain finished as the numbers flashed on the screen.

Casey punched the numbers into the autopilot and started to prep his equipment. He gathered his smoke bombs, throwing knives and calibrated his omni-tool. After everything checked out, he began to slip the sleek black armor on, piece by piece. Once the body armor was set, he picked up the recon hood of the set and slipped it over his head. The black weave, though thin, was still extremely strong and had two eye lenses for his HUD to show up on. With the armor complete a blue shimmer flickered from head to toe, indicating that the shields were online.

"ETA: two minutes" said the monotone virtual intelligence, guiding the shuttle. The small ship passed over two people huddled around a Mako vehicle. Casey had programmed the virtual intelligence to never land near a crowd and so the shuttle flew over a hill and landed behind it.

Casey took one last deep breathe, exited the shuttle and made his way over the grassy hill. As he strode towards the two, he recognized them from the briefing. For the sake of confidentiality, not only from listening parties on personal radios, but from each other, everyone was assigned a codename. The man ahead of him was "Golden Son", a born and raised military man, who was held in very high esteem with the Alliance. The asari standing next to him was the commando's former trainer as well as the liaison between the Alliance and Asari governments. She was given the codename "Blue Moon".

The man was the first to notice Casey; he turned around, "Kane, right?"

"Let's keep it to codenames, Golden Son" frowned Casey under his recon mask.

"Heh" chuckled the man before turning to the asari, "Blue Moon this is Silent Knight, one of our top infiltration units."

The asari faced Casey and seemed to have an aura of wisdom about her, one that can only come with the hundreds of years matriarchs like her live for. "Honor to meet you, sir Knight" she started smile, "I wish it was under better circumstances."

Casey studied her for a moment and then turned to face the human soldier, "How many inside?"

The stern faced man brought his right wrist up as his orange omni-tool flared to life. "We know that five of these commandos shot their way into the embassy and walked out with two people; one male and one female ambassador. They entered a Kiosk class shuttle which may or may not have been piloted by an unknown person and taken directly to this facility."

"So five, possibly six, commandos and two hostages. Anything you can tell me about this group?" Casey directed to the asari matriarch.

"They are highly trained in warfare; this squad is responsible for some of the most black op missions in the asari military."

Casey nodded, "I'll go in and disable the security and give you two a lay out of the building. You guys will move in and find cover. I will find the hostages and you will only engage if you feel it is absolutely necessary to, no exceptions, understood?"

The human and asari nodded their heads and readied their weapons. Casey turned and started towards the back of the facility. "Wait, don't you want to know why these commandos went rogue?" asked the asari behind him.

Casey stopped walking and turned his head over his left shoulder, "No."


	5. Chapter 5

_Present day_

"Where are we going Butch?" asked the injured drell. He was still draped over the large krogan's shoulder. The thief was injured from the crash and the run in with the man clad in black armor.

The krogan grunted under his helmet, giving no indication where he was heading. The brute was walking with a quick pace to the bottom of the building where their cargo truck crashed. Near the bottom of the building was a parking area. The krogan waddled its way to another large cargo hover vehicle. The vehicle was black and red and was larger than the previous truck. He activated it via a remote on his belt and opened the back cargo doors.

The krogan lifted the drell off his shoulder and effortlessly threw him into unit. The drell landed with a thud, holding his right leg and breathing heavily.

"What's going on Butch?" snapped Snider.

The krogan's helmet lights pierced through the darkness of the back of the cargo truck. The blue eye lights flared as krogan spoke through its helmet voice filter, "You had one job, Snider; you had a list of people in that ball to abduct." The krogan took a deep breath and continued, "They were people our boss needed to…persuade to join us. And now you have to tell her why you failed."

The drell's dark eyes widened, "What? No…I can't go to her." Snider tried to get out of the cargo bed by approaching the doors. Butch waited until he was close enough and grabbed him by the collar and held him up off the bed. Snider struggled forcing the krogan to head-butt him with his powerful head. The drell fell unconscious as Butch tossed him in the truck bed and closed the doors. The krogan snorted as he made his way to the front of the vehicle.

Several hours later Snider woke up in a vibrant garden. He was not bound or cuffed in any way as he slowly tried to stand. He winced in pain from his leg and looked around the large garden. He limped as he explored the garden, it had plants that he had never seen before and others he recognized. He was mesmerized by the garden.

"Do you know why you are here, Snider?"

The drell whipped his head around looking for the source of the sensual voice. It was a female's voice that seemed to come from every direction. He continued to scan the colorful garden as he shakily answered, "Yes, because I messed up, but it wasn't my fault!"

"Of course it wasn't" the woman's voice resonated through the drell's head.

"Some guy…ambushed us, we didn't stand a chance…please there was nothing I could do" the drell lowered his head, looking down at the floor.

Suddenly his head was lifted up by a soft hand pressing gently on his chin. He looked up to see the most beautiful asari he had ever seen. She blended in with the garden around her, as she herself had light greenish skin. Draped around her was a revealing green dress that barely covered her. She had an aura about her that seemed to make her glow.

She smiled as she continued to caress the drell's face with the back of her hand. "Why are you so afraid of me, Snider?"

The drell was entranced by her beauty, but he still had terror in his eyes. "There are…rumors"

The green asari smiled and tilted her head slightly. She walked to her left to a bed of exotic plants. She reached out and gracefully touched one of the large flowers, "Do you want to know why I love plants so much?" The drell said nothing as he just watched her caress the large red flower. "They are the only thing I can get close to," she stopped touching the flower and made her way back to standing in front of the drell, "without killing them." She then grabbed the drell's head with both hands and pulled him to her.

Their lips locked and Snider's mind was flooded with overpowering feelings. He wanted nothing but her, to do anything to please. The asari dominated his very being as she let go and stepped back. The drell dropped to his knees; ignoring the pain in his leg, and looked up to asari with his mouth gaped open.

"Snider, I want you to do something for me"

The drell spoke in a monotone, "Anything for you."

"Tell me everything about this man who stopped you today"

Never breaking eye contact with the asari, Snider started "He wore black armor and had wings. He moved like a shadow and had a terrifying voice. He was a creature unlike anything I had ever seen."

"He is just a man" the asari said to herself. She stepped in front of the drell, helping him to his feet. "Do you know what my enemies have nicknamed me?" The drell nodded. The asari leaned and kissed his lips once more, taking his breath away.

The drell fell back to his knees, trying to draw air into his lungs, "Poison…" he started as he fell on the floor with a dead stare in his dark eyes "…Ivy." With his last breath gone, the drell fell silent as his mind crumbled in itself, causing dark blood to drip from his eyes and mouth.

The green beauty looked down at the dead drell. She had no emotion on her face as she touched a metal bracelet on her wrist. Seconds later a large krogan made its way through the garden. "Lady Ivy" said the Krogan as he stood over the body of the drell he had brought in only minutes ago.

"Take that helmet off" commanded the asari.

The krogan reached up and took off the helmet revealing a scarred face with piercing blue eyes. The krogan had a mouth mask on that covered his entire mouth and had straps going around his large head. Two tubes were protruding from the mask leading to a medium sized tank on his back. The tubes had a red mist flowing through them. Whenever the krogan breathed out, a small cloud of red mist came from the mask.

"Bane darling, remove Snider and find this 'Bat' man and bring him to me" Ivy said as she made her way back into the deeper parts of her jungle. Bane bowed his head and grabbed the dead drell with one hand and started towards the door.

* * *

"AAAUUUGGGHH!" echoed through the dark cavern like room. Casey still dressed in the Batman armor, minus the helmet, sat on a med table as four metallic arms set his shoulder back into place. He rotated it around afterwards; if felt sore, but he'll be fine. "Thanks Alfred" he said under his breath as he made his way to a large chamber across from the med corner.

Inside the armor was taken off of him by similar metallic arms. A shower was inside the chamber as well and as soon as the Batman armor was off and he took a shower, Casey stepped out wearing black shorts a towel draped around his neck. He strode towards a large console with several screens already lit up.

The large room was filled with tech and several black vehicles. The entire room was set beneath Kane Manor on the Citadel. The Citadel has many mysteries that most of the races living on it do not know. Before the Kane's inhabited the home, the manor was likely a home for rich smuggler, who ordered the warehouse to be built underneath the manor. It was totally hidden from anyone on the outside of the building and had several security systems to keep it that way.

It had taken Casey some time and a lot of money to get the makeshift tech cave to work, but it was worth it. Now he had a secret place to work with no distractions and to store the various tools he needed to be Batman. The cave had a large area dedicated to different vehicles Casey had acquired including a Bat shaped personal hover plane, which had wires hanging out of it; still under construction.

There was the med corner outfitted with everything Alfred would need to patch Casey up as well as the armor chamber. Next to that was a workout area, with all kinds of training equipment at his disposal.

The cave squeaked at times, because of the bats Casey had imported into the cave, which made their home there quickly. Casey liked having them there; they calmed him while Alfred cleaned up after them.

In the center of the cave was the extravagant computer display. It had a chair that was surrounded by holo screens and analyzers. Casey sat in the chair with a sigh of relief. He didn't have much to go on, but started finding out as much as he could on the drell Snider. He began his extensive search when Alfred chimed in.

"Feeling better, Master Kane?"

"I'll live; you pick up anything from the run in with the krogan and drell?"

"Nothing you don't already know, although when cleaning your armor I did find trace elements of red sand in your helmet's air filter."

Casey knew of the drug, a potent drug that was poisonous, but also dramatically increases biotic power. He wondered how it had got in his filter. Neither the drell nor the krogan displayed any biotic abilities, but that didn't mean they didn't possess them. He made note of it and dug deeper into the drell's history.

C-Sec had files on him and suspects that he works for a larger criminal organization. Casey had heard of a supposed criminal underworld working through Citadel space, but he still needed more information. Rumors suggest that the empire is being controlled one person, someone codenamed 'Poison Ivy'.

Casey thought more on the case and thought back to the red sand when he came across new information. There was a report that a fuel/check depot officer tried to stop a ship smuggling a huge amount of red sand. The Alliance was already in pursuit of the ship, but Casey was more concerned about where it was going and coming from.

He rechecked the report which stated the destination was unknown, but that the ship originated from the crime capitol, Omega.

"Prep the Bat-fighter, Alfred."


	6. Chapter 6

_10 years earlier_

Getting into the building was the easy part, Casey just slipped in through a ventilation system. He made his way through the vents until he figured he was right over the main room. He could hear the commandos talking to themselves, some concerned that the long range communicators were down and others were worried about what the Alliance's next move would be.

Using a scanner in his lenses, he peered into the main room and was able to see through the vent wall. Scattered around the room were six individuals, some sitting and others standing around. Casey moved further into the building to an upper area that over saw the main room. Using the scanner, the overseeing room had two occupants; one sitting in a chair, bound, and another on guard.

"Silent Knight, Blue Moon and I are in position just outside the main room, waiting on you."

"Hold position, Golden Son" whispered Casey. The asari commando guarding over the bound hostage turned away to type on the computer screen behind her. Casey quickly dislodged a vent cover and slipped down to the floor. The hostage saw him and his eyes widened. Casey put his index finger to his mouth, signaling the hostage to be quiet. Casey crouched and snuck behind the asari and immediately put her into a sleeper hold. The asari drifted into unconsciousness as Casey laid her on the floor. He turned around and pulled out a knife to cut free the hostage.

"You have to help her" blurted the man.

"Quiet, where's the other hostage?"

"The ambassador, they took her and put commando armor on her. They locked up the armor so she couldn't move and put her with the rest of them down there."

"What?" then Casey did a headcount in his head, five commandos stormed the embassy. They left with two people, a man and woman, the woman being the ambassador. Seven people entered a gunship piloted by an unknown person. That leaves six commandos and two hostages for a total of eight people. There were two people in this room, the hostage and the guard, leaving six in the main room.

"One of them out there is the ambassador" Casey said to himself in a self-realization. He immediately put his hand to his ear, activating the com, "Silent Knight to Golden Son, hostage is mixed in with commandos, repeat hostage is dressed as a target." Casey waited for confirmation, but heard nothing, "Golden Son, do you copy?" There was nothing but static on the line. "Something is wrong"

Just then a pistol shot rang out in the room below, Casey went to the window and looked out. "Golden Son to Silent Knight, shot fired, we're moving in"

"No! Golden Son, GOLDEN SON!" Assault rifle shots started going off everywhere as the soldier and asari matriarch moved in.

"SHEPARD NOO!" yelled Casey, dropping the codename in his anger, as he shattered through the window overlooking the main room. Falling in the air Casey let out several smoke bombs that quickly filled the room. Casey turned on his scanner and saw the commandos shooting at Shepard and the matriarch in the doorway. He noticed two of the commandos were already down as he landed in the chaos.

He grabbed the closest asari commando and flipped her over, slamming her to the ground. Casey rolled to the doorway as the matriarch was making her advance. Casey grabbed her side arm and twister her arm around her back, then ramming her into the wall and tossing her aside.

Shepard couldn't see what was happening, but saw the matriarch fall to the ground in front of him. He advanced forward and was suddenly attacked.

Casey grabbed the Avenger rifle and stripped it from Shepard's hands. Casey knew that wasn't going to stop Shepard, he was a trained soldier; when you lose one weapon, you grab another.

Shepard unhinged the shotgun on his back and pointed it at the unknown attacker. The assailant roundhouse kicked the weapon right out of Shepard's hands. Not needing a weapon, Shepard tackled the masked person to the ground. The smoke was starting to let up and Shepard recognized the person he just tackled as Silent Knight. "Casey is that you?"

"You need to stop Shepard" Casey growled as he flipped Shepard over and brought a powerful knee to Shepard's jaw, disabling him long enough for Casey to control the situation. He got up and saw the remaining four commandos taking cover, not knowing what was happening. Casey ran towards the commandos, vaulting himself over a table hiding two of the asari. He landed behind them and bashed their heads together. The remaining two now saw him and as quickly as he could, Casey threw two throwing knives at the asari.

One blade connected in the upper shoulder of an asari, causing her to fall in pain. The other blade was blasted out of the air with a blue orb. The other asari had her hand extended as she tossed out another bubble of biotic energy, connecting with Casey on his chest. The force caused him to fly backwards and hit a wall. The commando walked over to him with her shotgun pointing down at Casey.

Casey didn't know what to do in that one moment. The asari was about to pull the trigger and a shot echoed in the room. Casey flinched but realized he hadn't been shot; he looked up as the asari fell to her knees and slumped over, dead. Casey looked behind her and saw the matriarch holding a smoking pistol.

Casey quickly got up and made a B-line for the matriarch. Shepard got up a moment before and now stood next to the matriarch. Casey made his way over to them and before anybody could say anything, Casey brought a rage fueled fist into the matriarch's face.

Shepard unclipped his pistol and instantly brought it up, pointing it at Casey.

"Shepard" Casey started.

"What the hell is going on Kane?" interrupted Shepard, yelling now.

"I am not the enemy, she is" Casey said pointing to the fallen matriarch.

"Says the guy who put his knee in my jaw. Explain yourself!"

"This was all a trap, set by her. Think about it, six highly trained commandos and not one look out? They were waiting for us to come in. She knew I would go for the easy target first, separating me from you two."

Shepard still had the gun pointed at Casey, but was listening carefully.

"The first hostage told me that the ambassador was dressed as a commando in locked armor, down here." Shepard's eyebrow arched. "I tried to radio you, but there was no answer, a jammer I presume, but I assume she heard everything."

Shepard slowly started to lower his weapon.

"The timing was too perfect, one of the commandos was taking 'practice shots' and the matriarch knew if you heard a shot fired you would storm in."

Casey walked over to the center of the room, kicking one of the asari in the face as she was gaining consciousness. He made his way to the other side and leaned over one of the fallen bodies. "I assuming the matriarch shot first?"

Shepard played the shoot out over in his head. He and the matriarch stormed and she shot the first commando they both saw holding an outstretched hand. "Yes."

Casey nodded; he reached down and pulled the helmet off of the downed commando revealing a human female. "This was the ambassador…"

Shepard had lowered his weapon completely, "Okay, but why?"

"Let's ask her" Casey said as he strode by Shepard to the waking matriarch. Casey grabbed the groggy matriarch and lifted her off the ground. He then pinned her against the wall, "Well?"

The matriarch shook her head, "Well how about you just assaulted a matriarch of the asari government!"

Casey shoved her against the wall again, "Not the answer I was looking for. Why go through all the trouble and not have one of your former students kill the ambassador?"

The matriarch started to laugh, "To embarrass the Alliance. This is going to make the news and you both are going to pay for it, I'll make sure of—" she was cut off by Shepard's fist going across her face. Casey let her limp body slide to the floor.

"We better call someone and straighten this out" sighed Shepard.

* * *

Casey and Shepard were sitting in an office, side by side in their dress blues. Behind the desk was a decorated captain reading through several holo-pads. Every so often he would look up at the two soldiers and then continue reading the reports.

"You two made quite a mess. I've read all the reports. The asari matriarch has been taken in by authorities, but there were cameras set up in the room. Someone got a hold of them and is slandering the Alliance, showing clips of Ensign Kane taking down Shepard and the matriarch. The Embassy wants someone to pay for the dead ambassador and the asari government is not taking responsibility for the matriarch's or commandos' actions, claiming they were working for themselves. So here we are."

Shepard spoke first, "It was a trap, Sir, orchestrated by the matriarch to make us look bad. She wanted the ambassador dead and to make it look like the Alliance screwed up. This man did all he could to prevent what happened" pointing at Casey.

"I know, but someone needs to take the blame for this, I'm sorry son. Kane, as commanding officer of this mission, the responsibility falls to you."

Casey's face remained stoic, "This is what she wanted."

"I know. Ensign Casey Kane, I hereby discharge you from the Alliance military. For you valiant service thus far and good standing in your ranks, you are discharged with honors." The captain stood up and saluted both the men as they stood and did the same. The captain then put his hand out and shook Casey's hand. "Good luck to you, son."

Casey nodded and left the room with Shepard. Outside the officer both men stood and shook each other's hands.

"Good out there, Kane, hopefully I'll see you around."

Casey smiled and headed towards the exit, but then turned to face Shepard, "Hey Shepard, try not go get yourself killed out there!"

Both men smiled again and then headed in opposite directions, each with a destiny to fulfill.


	7. Chapter 7

_Present day_

Omega is known by many different names to the other species, 'heart of evil, place of secrets, and world without law'. To humans it is simply Omega, a dark counterpart to the Citadel, though the Citadel is far from perfection. Omega has been a home for criminals to run free on for centuries.

Casey flew the Bat-fighter under the radar of most sensors using a sophisticated stealth system. It was still in trialing, but so far no one knew that Batman was heading to the most crime infested area in galactic space. He flew towards the mushroom shaped space station, near the freight docks, where there would be minimal people. Parking the fighter in a dark area, Casey put on his sealed bat helmet and released the hatch. He was not in an area with gravity and so he maneuvered in the zero-G environment.

He activated his jet boots to help him around as he made his way to the hull of the mined out station. His cape folded and swayed in the dark of space. His mag-boots made walking on the metallic hull easy and eventually he found an escape hatch. Quickly disabling the controls via his omni-tool, he slipped into the small room and closed the hatch behind him. Hitting more holo buttons on his omni-tool he equalized the pressure and let gravity settle.

On the metal grated floor now, he pulled up a map on his HUD to show that he was near the base of the mushroom-cloud shaped station.

"Alfred, show most likely spots for Aria T'Loak to sleep" Casey said under his breath, starting his way through the maintenance shaft.

"I have marked the most secure, logical places where Ms. T'Loak would rest her head when not being the Queen of Omega" politely said Alfred inside the helmet.

Casey studied the four locations marked by the artificial intelligence. "It's that one, in the top right, just above her nightclub." The dark knight made his way through the corridors, searching for a way up when he came to an elevator shaft. He looked down it and then up, noticing he had just missed one going up.

Quickly he equipped a grapple line to his left omni-tool and let it connect with the bottom of the elevator. He soared upward, flying behind the fast moving elevator, while slowly reeling in the grapple line. He was directly under the conveyer as he lifted himself so that he connected his mag-boots and gloves to that bottom. His cape fluttered as he ascended to the main level of Omega.

Batman tracked his progress on his HUD and when he was at the level of the nightclub Afterlife, he demagnetized his boots and gloves, causing him to free fall in the elevator shaft. Still having the grapple line equipped he shot it at the wall and swung himself in a ventilation shaft. He made his way so that he could see a group of people standing outside the exotic club.

Local time was 03:32am, but it seems this did not concern the would-be clubbers. The caped crusader shrugged and continued his way into the nightclub. The ventilation shaft ended and Batman slipped into the loud club's ceiling. There was plenty of cover and little light shining to the ceiling of the club, making it easy to move around. Batman perched himself on a metal beam and scanned the area.

Just below him was a large, circular stage where several asari were dancing in skimpy outfits, with a dance floor for clubber below them. The outer area had chairs and tables with a bar in the corner. Neon lights and loud music filled the air, making it a little difficult for Casey to see individual people. He maneuvered himself around and saw an upper lounge overlooking the dance floor.

He jumped a few beams and was directly over the lounge area, where he saw two armed batarians standing guard in front of a bench against a wall. This seemed out of place and after a scan through the wall; Batman saw a hidden elevator, likely Aria T'Loak personal conveyor.

Casey knew there were a number of ways to deal with this situation, but went with the easiest; he leaped down directly on the shoulders of one of the batarians. Before either of them could react, the trained vigilante flipped the batarian over using his feet placed around the alien's head. The one batarian landed hard on his back, out cold, while the other readied his weapon. While Batman was still on the floor, he swept his leg, tripping the other batarian.

No one heard any of the commotion over the music and with that cover Batman grabbed the second batarian from off the ground.

"Where's Aria?" yelled the deep voice coming from the black helmet.

The batarian struggled to get free from the iron grip of the man holding him, but there was no use. Batman got his helmeted face closer to the batarian's and he let his right hand free and held it in a fist. The blades on his forearm turned to face the batarian and started to glow red.

"I won't ask again" growled Batman.

"Up in her suite," the batarian said hesitantly as the hidden doorway opened, "but she'll never let you in" he barked.

"She won't have to" Batman turned the batarian around and shoved him to the hidden doorway. "I'm sure you have an emergency override code, so do it" threatened Batman waving the glowing blades on his gauntlet.

The batarian sighed, knowing either way this wouldn't end well and punched in the code on a panel. The door way opened, showing an elevator. Batman put down his gauntlet and made his way to the doorway, shoving the batarian's face into the wall on the way.

The elevator automatically closed and started it's ascension to Aria's suite. On his way up, Batman could hear an alarm going off, undoubtedly for the emergency use of the elevator. When the conveyor arrived to the suite floor and the doors opened, Aria was waiting with dreary eyes. Her eyes widened quickly seeing Batman's armor lunge towards her.

Next thing she knew she was waking up, with her hands handcuffed behind her back in one of her own chairs. She looked around and seeing nothing, was about to break free using her biotics.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." The deep voice came from the shadows.

"And why not?!" demanded Aria.

Batman emerged from a dark corner with his cape draped around him. "Do you feel that disc attached to the top of your back?"

Aria twisted her neck back and forth, feeling the metallic disc.

"That's a biotic disruptor. If you even think about using any biotics, it sends 10,000 volts through your body" Batman kept circling around Aria as he spoke.

Aria had a perplexed look and finally sighed, "What do you want?"

Batman only had half of the clues, but had a good guess as to what was really happening, so he filled in the blanks himself.

"Why are you paying tribute to the 'Poison Ivy'?" Batman said standing in front of her.

The mere mention of the name caused Aria to straighten up, she chose her words carefully, "They threatened to come here and take over if I didn't."

"And you agreed immediately?" questioned the dark knight.

"I didn't have a choice, Ivianna…Ivy sent her enforcer to persuade me, a krogan adept, one so powerful he nearly destroyed Omega."

Batman started to put the information together, "The red sand is for the krogan." Batman turned his back to Aria, thinking back to the red sand found during his encounter with 'Butch'.

"Do not underestimate the krogan….he is…smarter than he seems" Aria trailed off looking away to the side.

Batman broke his thought and turned back to walk around her. "I'll be watching you T'Loak" he said behind her.

Aria snapped back "Is that supposed to scare me?" She waited for an answer. After hearing nothing she got angrier and decided to risk the shock. Biotic power flowed over her body as she effortlessly tore the metal cuffs. She got up with a surprised look; she then grabbed the metal disc off her back to examine it.

She crushed the metal disc in her hand after realizing it was nothing more than a common bottle lid that Batman had stuck on her. Her rage fueled her biotic power blow a hole right through the elevator shaft, but it didn't matter, Batman was already gone. She had been duped and embarrassed on her own fortress.

Batman had made his way back to the main elevator shaft and was free falling down it with his cape extended out. He had the information he needed, though grim, he now knew that Ivy did indeed exist, he knew her real name and about her enforcer; an incredibly powerful biotic krogan that required large amounts of red sand. Not only that, but was able to scare Aria. With these facts, Casey would be able to more effectively find and track them down.

Batman slowed his fall by opening his cape and drifting onto an already descending elevator. His business on Omega was nearly done; he had one more stop to make.

* * *

It had been a short day. Each day seemed to be getting shorter, especially when the day is spent in a bar. But that's all Garrus felt like doing in the days after he learned his friend Shepard had died.

He couldn't shake the feeling that if he had been on the Normandy things would have been different. In reality he knew that had he been there, things would have gone the same. After he got word of the incident, he left C-Sec because of the politics and way things were run there.

He came to Omega for a fresh start. He went to a bar nightly and always got into a fist fight with some local thug. It was an anger relief and frankly made him feel better. Garrus had made a deal with a local about staying in a small apartment in one of the lower wards of the station. He stumbled off the elevator and brought his three fingered hand to his mouth, rubbing the fresh bruise on his face. To be honest, Garrus didn't even remember what the fight had been about, but it felt great while wailing on the other drunken turian.

He made his way to his small, one bedroom apartment and had the key card ready. He swiped the card and dragged himself in the dark room. Garrus waved his hand of a sensor to turn on the lights in the room, but nothing happened. He waved his hand on the sensor a second time, with the same result.

"Uh" he moaned as he ran his hand over his frilled head. He turned on his light from his omni-tool and swept it around the room. He saw his small bed roll and a cabinet next to it. More to the right was his armor stand with his favorite sniper rifle leaning on it. He swept it to the wall and thought he saw something glimmer when the light touched it, but saw nothing and so shrugged it off.

Blaming his paranoia on the alcohol, he shrugged and sat down on his bed roll. He sighed again as he leaned back and started to drift off to sleep.

"Garrus Vakarian"

Instinctively, Garrus sat up and snatched the pistol he kept under his pillow, and aimed it at the place he heard gruff voice from. He aimed the pistol and his omni-tool light at the opposite wall, where he saw the glimmer again as the wall seemed to morph into a black cloth.

A person stepped out from his tactical cloak to reveal himself wearing a black helmet with two points on his head. He was draped in a long, black cape.

Garrus didn't hesitate and squeezed the trigger on his side arm four times, before realizing the thermal clip had been removed from it. He carefully watched the person clad in black as he got closer and closer to where Garrus was sitting. The dark knight opened his cape showing his armor with a distinct bat symbol on his chest. He tossed the thermal clip to Garrus' gun to the turian.

Garrus caught the clip and then looked back to the caped man, "You haven't killed me yet, so I assume you're here for something else."

"I want to talk"

"Well you have my attention" Garrus said as he took a more relaxed stance on his bed.

"You were part of Shepard's team who tracked down and destroyed the Reaper known as Sovereign and the turian, Saren Arterius" stated the dark knight. Garrus only nodded with his eyes going to the floor when Shepard's name was mentioned. "I'm sorry about his death, he was a good man"

Garrus looked up at his dark helmet, "You knew him?"

Batman hesitated for a second and then lied, "No. But I did keep track of his team and especially you, because of your C-Sec and Spectre training." Garrus' eyes squinted, wondering where Batman was going with this. "Why did you leave C-Sec?" asked Batman.

Garrus took a deep breath, "I got tired of politics getting in the way of justice. Too much red tape, so I thought I could do more good on my own. I guess you know the feeling." Batman said nothing, but the turian's answer confirmed what he already suspected. "Anyway, it turns out it's a little harder to get started. I've thought about just going and shooting as many of the gang members as I can."

Batman pulled out several data discs from his belt and tossed them at Garrus. "I have a better idea. I need someone to watch over Omega. Those discs include data on shipments, activities, and tactics on the three major mercenary groups operating through Omega."

Garrus examined the discs, "How am I supposed to do this alone?"

"Prove you get things done and people will join."

Garrus nodded, "Like Shepard…okay" Garrus got up, went over to his armor stand and picked up his rifle.

"Killing is their way, not ours. No killing" a fizzing sound emitted from Batman's gauntlet as Garrus' light on his omni-tool went dark. Then the apartment lights turned on and Garrus was standing alone in his room. He looked around and saw that the Batman was gone, which left Garrus standing holding his rifle and the data discs. He thought about what Batman had said about not killing…for a second. He then lifted the sniper rifle, loaded a clip and started to make the proper calibrations.

_-I'll pull the trigger and I'll live with the consequences_


	8. Chapter 8

_8 years earlier_

"I can't tell you how helpful you being here for the last two years have been." The turian shook the hand of the fully armored human. The human had to wear his recon head and armor because of the strong sunlight and radiation of the turian home world, Palavan.

Casey knew that few humans have stepped foot on Palavan, but was able to secure passage and work out deals with the engineering corps. For the first few months, he was nothing more than a worker for the turian hierarchy, until Casey made contact with a high end engineer. The turian had an idea to make the first stealth starship engine, but he did not have the funds or supplies for his research.

Casey found him and supported his research as they both worked together. The turian and human worked together for almost a year until they had a prototype personal stealth ship that successfully hid thermal emissions from radar. Together they also started work on a system that could integrate the tactical cloak technology on starships, though that project was more difficult. Once the prototype personal stealth fighter was complete, the turian was being contacted by numerous organizations to build stealth ships, most notably the Alliance. Casey was glad the technology worked, but asked not to be credited as a co-creator or having helped fund the project.

"Well with the Alliance knocking on your door now, you'll be busy filling in that new frigate order" replied Casey shaking the turian's hand back.

"Yea it's going to be tough, an order like that, being more than five times bigger than the prototype" shakily said the turian putting his hand over his frills.

"Speaking of, you're sure it's okay if I take the fighter?"

"Absolutely, I have all the data I need from it and as far as I know, you paid for it" smiled the turian.

"Thanks again and I know you'll be fine. Good luck." With that Casey nodded his head and picked up his duffle bag and climbed the ladder of the fighter behind him. He activated all systems and slowly rose off the ground; he looked down to the turian and gave him a salute. With systems hot, he took off into the horizon.

He had spent nearly two years on the turian home world and learned a lot about their culture and more importantly technology. After Casey was discharged from the Alliance, he wanted to see the galaxy. Palavan was his first choice because he would need transportation and knew he could learn more about engineering and turian discipline.

"Are you sure leaving your name off the stealth engine system was the right decision?" chimed the well-mannered A.I. from Casey's ear. Before Casey left for the stars, he built a device that would wirelessly transmit Alfred from Kane Manor to wherever Casey was.

"It's better that way. I'll make improvements to this fighter though. The stealth tech will be useful to the Alliance, just glad I helped."

"I see, where to next sir?"

"Kahje, Hanar home world and adopted home to the drell."

* * *

Unlike on Palavan, Casey did not have any contacts on Kahje and barely knew anything about it. He knew as much as anybody, how Kahje was 90% water and its inhabitants were the aquatic hanar. Nearly 200 hundred years prior, the hanar transported thousands of drell from their doomed overpopulated planet. Now over 375,000 drell lived on Kahje and help out the hanar in any way they can, grateful of what the hanar did to help them. This includes combat, which hanar are not effective at outside of water. And this is why Casey wanted to visit, to compare what he has learned already with drell combat.

He flew his new fighter over one of cities, built over the planet sized ocean, and requested landing. A drell came over the comm saying he had permission to land. Casey landed his fighter and unloaded his gear. He made his way to the port and registered under a false name, to conceal his identity.

Casey knew that finding people who would be willing to show him drell combat wouldn't be easy and so he spent months learning about how drell and hanar cultures had melded together. He studied how drell were honored to serve the hanar through the Compact, an agreement made between both parties.

Some time passed and Casey had to find a job to keep himself busy. He found a fishing job and helped drell and hanar in their biggest economic job. It helped him to blend in and get to know many of the locals. Casey learned of a combat training facility, with help from his new contacts, they were able to get him in the facility.

Inside the building reminded Casey of an Alliance training facility, with packs of people doing exercises and different drills. One of Casey's friends, a young drell named Harot, was able to get an audience with a high ranking drell trainer.

"Wait here" said Harot to Casey. The drell walked over to a large drell, much larger than any drell Casey had seen before. The large drell started to laugh when Harot pointed to Casey from across the training floor. Both the drell started their way towards Casey.

"Harot tells me you wish to test your skills against the drell," the large drell looked Casey from head to toe "but you are far too old to start learning our ways. And you're a human"

"Ke'art, he has been trained in the Alliance and is an N6 discharge. He only wishes to learn our ways" chimed Harot.

Ke'art, the large overbearing drell, smiled "Let's see what the humans have taught you." Then without a second hesitation, Ke'art lunged at Casey throwing a quick punch.

Instinctively Casey shoved aside the punch and rolled left and took a readied stance. He quickly glanced around and noticed the fight had drawn the facility's attention. A crowd of drell had circled around the two combatants.

Ke'art walked around the edge of the circle, "Tell you what human, if you can best me without those gadgets all over your belt, we'll consider your application" chuckled the drell. He once again ran towards Casey.

Casey swung at nothing but air when the drell slid between his legs and appeared behind him. Casey launched his elbow backwards, again hitting nothing, as Ke'art blocked that attack with one hand and rammed his other in Casey's ribcage. Casey grunted in pain, but continued with a roll forward. Ke'art followed right behind him with a leaping kick to Casey's chest just as he was getting up. Casey fell on his back and looked up at the drell standing over him.

"You've been fighting humans for too long. You throw your attacks where you know he is, not where he is going" mocked Ke'art.

Casey did not bother with a response and flipped himself to his feet. He threw his fist at the drell, Ke'art nimbly dodged, but Casey expected this and bent his elbow sideways into the drell's face. Casey twirled around and knocked his other elbow into the exact same place, staggering the drell. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Casey jumped and landed a roundhouse kick to the side of Ke'art's head, causing him to fall. Casey took another readied stance as he took two steps back.

Ke'art wiped the dark blood from his mouth as he smiled and got to his feet. "You hold back your attacks, you never let yourself go. Are you afraid that you'll hurt me?"

"I have trained with the best fighters on Earth, learned to help others and use my skills for good" replied Casey.

"So you believe your Body is good? But do you think your actions make your Soul good?"

Casey had learned about drell religion, how they believe the Soul and Body are different and that only when they work together are they Whole. Casey took a relaxed stance and stood up, "My actions will protect people from injustice."

"To fight any opponent one must let go of his rage and inflict maximum damage. So I ask again, do you think your Soul is good?" asked the drell, now standing eye to eye to Casey.

Casey looked down and then lunged at the drell, catching him off guard. He lifted his knee to the drell's gut and dropped his elbow in the back of the drell's head. He then grabbed the shoulders of the shoving him backwards. Casey then jumped up and planted both of his feet into the drell's chest, causing them to both fly back. Ke'art fell on the ground as Casey landed on his hands, flipping himself to his feet.

The crowd was in an uproar, but became silent when Casey stopped his assault and stood up once again. Ke'art took longer to get to his feet, clearly in pain.

"No," Casey said in a gruff voice, "my soul is not good"

The drell stood now holding his chest and smiled. He nodded to Harot and then turned into the crowd. Harot walked up behind the heavy breathing Casey, "Well I guess you're in" he said as he put a hand on Casey's shoulder. Casey turned to him and nodded.

The following months Casey trained relentlessly with drell special forces. Most drell were biotics and so Casey learned numerous defenses against biotics and how to disable them. Drell were also famous for infiltrating areas completely unseen. Casey was even able to teach the drell a few of his own techniques he had learned to remain undetected by the enemy. In time, Casey had learned all he could from both the drell and hanar. He thanked Harot and Ke'art for his training and so he left to continue his journey through the galaxy.


	9. Chapter 9

_Present Day_

"Welcome back sir, all of Batman's business done on Omega?" Alfred said as Batman entered the personal fighter.

"For now" replied the dark knight as he flipped several switches and buttons, readying for take-off.

"Well do you recall when you set the signal scanner to search for all possible transmissions regarding Poison Ivy?"

"Yes"

"Well I believe I picked up a transmission from Ivy herself"

"Saying?" asked Batman, intrigued now.

"She messaged a heavily fortified cargo frigate, telling them to deliver 'The weapon' as fast as they could."

"Weapon?" asked Batman leaning back in the padded seat of the Bat-Fighter.

"Yes, it seems the frigate is transporting something only referred as 'the weapon'. The frigate is full of armed guards with a fleet of fighters surrounding it. It seems whatever this weapon is; Ivy does not want anyone discovering it."

Casey agreed. Inside the dark windows of the fighter, he took off his helmet and placed it next to him. He ran his gloved hand through his hair and breathed deep.

"Any idea where it is going or where it's coming from?" asked Casey.

"Yes, the frigate is heading to the Citadel, likely directly to Ivy. It is unknown where the ships hail from originally."

"Letting them get to their destination could be catastrophic," Casey considered his options "do you know where they are now?"

"Yes," Alfred pulled up the coordinates on the screen in front of Casey, "They left the Asgard system in the Exodus Cluster and are just now leaving a fuel depot in the Pax system in the Horse Head Nebula, on their way to use the relay to get to the Citadel."

"Thanks Alfred" Casey punched in the remaining data and took off to intercept the cargo ship. The Bat-Fighter was quickly through the relay and already in range of the fleet. "Time to see if the cloak tech works, activate now". The Bat-Fighter's hull shimmered as it blended in the with stars around it. It moved unseen among the several other fighters, weaving in between them.

"The Bat-Wing's cloak is holding up and all fighters are unaware of your presence" reported Alfred.

Casey tilted his head, "Bat-Wing?"

"I'm sorry sir, Bat-Fighter" sarcastically replied the A.I.

Casey noted the name and flew the fighter close to the medium sized frigate. He attached the bat shaped fighter on the underside of the frigate.

Casey placed his helmet back on, causing a sealing sound. "Stay silent Alfred".

"Yessir"

Ready now, Batman hit a button that caused a circular hatch to slide open below, revealing the hull of the frigate. "Go" said Batman as the edge of the circular hatch glowed red and began to cut through the hull silently. Batman put his magnetized glove on the metal frigate just as it cut through. Batman then climbed through the hole and placed the metal circle to the side of the hole. "Seal the hole" and with the command, the Bat-Fighter put up a blue field between it and the frigate.

Batman scanned the area around him and marked an area that was more armored and secured than the others, figuring that was the location of the 'weapon'. He crouched down with his cape draped around him and made his way to the end of the hall. Around the corner were two armed guards, one human and the other salarian. Batman scanned through the walls and saw there was one more guard at the end of the hall, possibly asari noted Batman.

He turned the corner and shoved the humans head into the wall next to him and in the same motion side kicked the salarian in the chest. The salarian stumbled back and Batman returned his focus to the human, grabbing his head again and slamming it down on Batman's armored knee. He gently heard the sound of a gun's safety going off behind him, causing Batman to back up into the salarian with his Vindicator assault rifle over Batman's right shoulder. The caped crusader reached up and brought the rifle down, hearing the salarian's bones break in his arms. The salarian howled in pain as Batman kept hold of his arm and flipped him over on the floor in front of him.

Batman looked to the end of the hall in time to see a warp bubble streaking towards him. The silent knight grabbed his cape behind him and 'caught' the warp bubble with it as he twisted himself around. When he was facing the asari again he let out a barrage of three batarangs and let them sink into the asari's right arm, stunning her into unconsciousness.

Batman draped the cape around him and walked cautiously to where the asari laid. Certain she was out; Batman looked to the door in front of him and quickly hacked into the security of the frigate, accessing full access. Before opening the he looked past the door with his scanner and saw that there were at least twenty armed guards on the other side. Batman looked back down to his omni-tool and shut down the lights in the room ahead of him.

The door slid open as Batman crouched again, tossing in four stun grenades. He quickly closed the door and waited two seconds as a loud fizzing noise could be heard through the door. Batman reopened the door and walked in without looking down at the stunned bodies spread all over the room. In the center of the room was a big metal door, with multiple screens and locks. Batman stood in front of the door for a moment, taking note of all the security measures. He calibrated his omni-tool to ready several high-explosive bombs. Batman placed the bombs over the hinges of the door and took several steps back. He hit the button on his omni-tool and the bombs exploded in a brilliant flash of fire.

Batman then equipped a reinforced grapple line and shot it at the top of the door and started to pull down on it. The door creaked and then slammed down on the metal floor. Red light and smoke filled the room beyond the broken door. Batman did a quick test on the gas that filled the room and noted that it was designed as a knock-out gas. Batman walked cautiously into the room, expecting to see a doomsday weapon or an arsenal of prototype guns, but saw nothing. The room had red light filters set on all the walls, floor and ceiling. Batman moved farther into the room, looking all around, when he saw it.

Chained up in tight metal bars was a man. He was unconscious and looked unhurt, knocked out from the thick gas. Batman slowly looked at him, noting his jet black hair and chiseled face. Batman looked further down and saw he wore a tight suit that was brightly colored and had a giant \S/ in a strange pentagon sprawled over his chest.

* * *

Media reports all over Terra Nova were buzzing with news that someone had reignited the dormant engines on the orbiting meteor. The meteor had almost crashed into the planet not even a year before, but was stopped by Commander Shepard. The meteor was then left to orbit Terra Nova, with the engines on it left deactivated. With them ignited once again, it was only a matter of minutes before the meteor would plummet into Terra Nova.

Then he came. He tore through space, leaving a red and blue streak behind him. He rocketed out of Terra Nova's local relay and headed right to the meteor. Satellites above Terra Nova zoomed in on the meteor to see him pushing the meteor away from the planet and out of the system. The headlines everywhere read: Superman Saves the Day!

Superman smiled, as he could hear the people on Terra Nova cheering, even though he was thousands of miles away from it in deep space. He continued to push the gigantic meteor away from the planet until it was entirely out of the solar system. He let go of the giant rock and let it drift in the nothingness of space. He turned around, barely able to see the yellow sun of Terra Nova.

Thanks to his solar suit, he always had yellow solar energy stored up and so did not always need to be near a yellow sun. He had long ago abandoned the red cape to his suit, noting it just got in the way when in the vacuum of space. Nodding his head, he started to head back to the relay to continue his day. "I wouldn't do that Superman." The female voice rang in the ear piece Superman had. He paused in space and grabbed a mouth mask from his belt. He placed the clear mouth cover over the bottom half of his face.

"And who would this be?" asked the brightly colored man.

"This is the man who will blow up several buildings on Terra Nova if you do not do exactly as I say."

Superman looked directly at Terra Nova and was about to fly to it, when the voice chimed again.

"I can detonate the buildings faster than you can get there. Do not test me. A ship is approaching you now, I suggest you get in it and we'll talk more." Sure enough a medium sized frigate soon made its way to where Superman was floating.

Superman thought about his options and knew that even at his terminal speed; he would still need five to ten seconds to reach Terra Nova. Plus he had no idea which buildings, if any, were being targeted. He crossed his arms over the oversized \S/ on his chest and floated towards the coming frigate.

A hatch opened on the top of the ship as Superman approached. He flew into it and the hatch quickly closed. Superman landed on the metal floor as the room was depressurized. He stood in the center of the room with his arms crossed as nearly twenty armed guards swarmed around him.

Taking off his breathing mask and putting it back on his belt, Superman glanced at the armed people around him," You guys know this isn't going to end well for you, right?"

"I think it will. I want to meet you Superman and didn't know how to get a hold of you" once again the female voice buzzed throughout the room.

"You're not on the ship are you?" noticed Superman.

"No, I'm sure your super-senses have already told you that. But I am eager to meet you."

"I'm sure. There are no bombs on Terra Nova are there?" Superman said as he shifted his weight.

"Two for two. No, there are not."

"Yea well I'll be leaving now, I'll have to meet you later" stated Superman as he hovered off the ground.

"I wasn't asking." Just as she finished, blue sparks shot out from several spots on the walls, shocking Superman. Superman felt unaffected by the attack, as the bolts retracted into the walls. He floated back to the ground, "You guys really don't know much about me do you?"

The female on the other side of the voice let out a chuckle, "Actually, we know more than you think." As she finished her sentence, all the walls, ceiling and floor lit up red. "This is red solar radiation, which saps your super abilities away, making you…human."

Superman arched his eyebrow and on a hunch lifted his right wrist to check a tiny screen on it, which showed that his solar energy reserves were drained. He realized the electrical attack was in fact an energy drain, designed to drain the solar power. He looked up to see the armed guards inching their way closer to him.

Realizing the bind he was in, Superman grabbed the closest guy to him and twirled him, throwing him into other guards. The other guards opened fire on Superman, shooting stun rounds. Superman dropped to a knee after multiple rounds hit him all over. The guards stopped firing and surrounded him with guns ready.

Superman breathed heavily and in a last act of defiance, uppercutted the nearest guard, sending the human off his feet. The others took to beating the hero with the butts of their weapons, until he was beaten on the floor.

"Secure the package and bring the weapon to me" commanded the female voice.

"Yes, Poison Ivy" said several of the men as they secured the depowered Superman in the center of the red lit room.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10, Superman and Batman part 2

Present Day

The dark knight had heard of this guy, it was hard not to read a news report without hearing about this so called 'Superman'. Batman had done very little research on him, being busy with other priorities. He knew that he was an alien who inexplicable looked human, who was sent to Earth. Watching vids of some of his heroics, Batman saw first-hand the incredible abilities he possessed and classified him as a possible risk.

This 'Superman' claims to fight for good, but with such an arsenal of abilities, it would be hard to be sure.

Batman had estimated that the fuel for his abilities were solar, and now the red radiation confirmed it.

He examined the confined man and noted the metal beams holding him; they seemed to be made of something extremely strong and durable. Batman looked around the room and saw the control panel on the other side against the wall. He activated his dark blue omni-tool and began to hack the system. Acquiring the codes needed, he then adjusted the ventilation system; dispersing the knock out gas. He then deactivated the red solar radiation lights and turned back to the unconscious man.

Expecting him to immediately wake up and break out of his restraints, Batman cautiously got closer. He was standing right in front of the brightly colored man now and saw no indication of him waking up.

Not having time for this, Batman brought his armored hand across the face of the unconscious man, "Wake up!" he barked.

The slap was noticeable hard, but Batman was interested to see that the man opened his eyes and seemed to be in pain. Batman could remember seeing this man survive missile launchers to the face without a scratch on holo-vids. The great detective deduced the red solar energy robbed him of his abilities and not merely suppress them.

The man blinked his blue eyes a few times and then looked up to the black clad figure standing in front of him.

"Thanks" he exhaled, exhausted and hurt.

The dark knight said nothing as he turned his head to look back at the control panel. He waved his hand towards it with his omin-tool active and with a clicking noise the metal restraints released. The man fell to the ground on his knees and caught himself with his right hand.

He slowly got up, stretching his back by twisting and turning.

This was wasting time, "So are you totally useless without your abilities?" growled the caped knight.

The black haired man folded his arms on the oversized \S/ on his chest. "Well, that depends, where are we now?"

Batman stood facing the man with his cape draped around him, "Pax system, Horse Head Nebula."

The capeless man looked down, thinking, "Class K star. Yea I'll be fine. Thanks again" he said with a smile as he put his hand out for a handshake.

Batman looked down at his hand and then back to the man's face. "What was Poison Ivy going to do with you?"

The man shrugged, putting down his hand, "My guess? Somehow persuade or control me to help her."

Batman lunged at the man, grabbing his collared suit and pinning him against the back wall. "Then it's in my best interest to take you out now!" he yelled. Batman had no intention to kill him, but wanted to gage a reaction from the man while depowered, see what he would do when threatened. To Batman's surprise, the other man barely blinked or lowered an eyebrow.

"Well before we do this, I suggest we deal with them first" the man said non-chalantly, tilting his head up looking over Batman's left shoulder.

Batman tilted his head and checked his sensors, noticing that a squad of six had come into the room to investigate the commotion. He knew this so called 'superman' had seen them come in and surround them, knowing they would be armed with stun rounds to preserve the weapon for Ivy. Batman growled in his helmet and then pushed himself off the pinned man and landed a gut wrenching uppercut to the closest guard's stomach.

The human had the wind knocked out of him as he fell face first on the floor. Stun rounds were shot everywhere, attempting to take down the armored knight leaping around the room. Batman swept the legs of one trooper while simultaneously throwing several batarangs at another.

One batarian had unholstered a shotgun from his back and pointed it right at the caped knight. Seconds from pulling the trigger, the batarian was tackled by the red and blue suited man. Both went down with a grunt, as the man landed a two fist combo in the batarian's face, stunning him. The man then grabbed the shotgun from the ground and went back to help the dark knight.

Batman shifted around in time to see a salarian with his omni-tool, shifted into an omni-blade, fall unconsciousness in front of him. Batman looked up to see that the red and blue man had hit the salarian in the back of the head with the butt-end of a shotgun.

Batman eyed the shotgun that the man had lowered and then quickly tossed away, "I know your rules, and mine are actually the same."

"You know who I am?" questioned the dark knight standing upright.

"Well to be honest I thought you were just a myth, a spooky story to scare criminals."

Casey couldn't help but feel good about that.

"Well so far, I have seen nothing 'super' about you."

The man let out a small laugh, "Let's fix that." He turned and started down the hall with Batman following behind. They made their way through the hall and came to a split.

"This way" Batman said, already taking the lead. He stopped when noticed he wasn't being followed.

"I've got a better idea" said the brightly colored man walking towards an emergency exit port. He hit the button, activating an alarm throughout the frigate and opening the pod door. He strode in and then closed it.

Batman quickly got defensive looking around for more guards and was finally fed up with playing baby-sitter. He obviously knows what he's doing.

Batman figured the God-like abilities that the man normally possessed had made him cocky and not fearful of most situations. With these thoughts racing through his head he made his way back to the hidden hull-hatch. He opened it and slid into the Bat-Fighter, prepping all controls and then detaching from the frigates hull. He floated for a few seconds and then activated the thrusts and started to move away from the mercenary armada.

The other ships started to break formation; they received the alarm signifying the weapon was free. Still cloaked, Batman looked out from the cockpit trying to spot the man he had just freed. The system's orange sun was shining brightly through and after the caped knight filtered the orange light out, he spotted him.

He was floating in the nothingness of space and seemed to have put on a breathing mask. Batman zoomed in on his location, and noticed that he was not moving.

Sure that he was unconscious again, Batman maneuvered his ship through the vigilant enemy fighters. When Batman was only a few meters from the man, the dark knight saw him arch his back and curl his fists.

The brightly dressed man then moved himself in front of where Batman was cloaked and started to speak into his breathing mask.

Batman scanned local channels and located the signal in which the man was using, "…and yes I can see your cloaked ship. Good you found the channel. Now if you can hack into the frigate's mainframe, you can figure out where a fleet like this came from."

Batman was curious himself; an armada such as this had to have come from some control base or headquarters.

"I'll buy you time by distracting them."

"Can you handle it?" asked Batman, already typing on the holo-screens.

"Sure, I am Superman after all" with that he disappeared into a red and blue blur overtop of the cloaked Bat-fighter. He streaked towards the fighters and tore the engines from off the backside of the ships, one by one. Batman was lost in thought, hacking into the frigate's navigation and operation systems, when the synthesized AI voice interrupted him.

"Sir, I was doing scans of this 'Superman' while you were talking and your original hypothesis of this man was correct. His body absorbs high level solar radiation to attribute to his super-human abilities. But it seems that this system's class K star is only minimally charging him."

Batman looked up from his screens, "Minimally?" He thought to himself for a moment, remembering that the red solar energy had robbed him of his abilities, essentially making red solar power neutral to Superman. Casey knew that Superman was originally titled 'Earth's Champion' having been first spotted on Earth, which orbits a class G star, which is seen as yellow.

Batman deduced that it must be the higher energy output of a yellow sun that makes Superman super. The dark knight maneuvered the Bat-fighter around to see the fleet behind the small ship.

Metal debris and wreckage was scattered amongst several derelict fighters. Small burst of missiles could be seen and when Batman enhanced the image to get a closer look, he could see the missiles striking Superman and putting him in serious pain.

He de-cloaked the Bat-fighter and activated all weapon systems. Zig-zagging between several other fighters, a small cannon on the underside of the bat shaped fighter fired concentrated electrical shells that completely disabled any machinery it impacted.

Between Superman and Batman, it did not take them long leave all the ships that were supposed to be guarding the frigate derelict in space.

"Thanks," Superman breathed heavily into his breathing mask, "did you find where the group is from?"

"Standby" Batman replied, working away on the holo-screens.

Superman had crossed his arms over his chest again, "You don't talk much do you?"

Batman didn't look up from his screens, "You talk too much." He could hear through the comm a small chuckle come from floating hero.

"Sir, the hack of the frigates systems is nearly complete, but I detect it is powering up its engines to flee the system" politely said Alfred inside the cockpit of the fighter.

Batman then quickly looked up from his screens, noticing the large frigate's engines starting to power on. Thoughts were racing through Batman's head; his electric pulse cannon would not stun an engine that size. He then looked to Superman, who had apparently heard Alfred, and saw that he was already on his way towards the frigate. Superman gained speed through the emptiness of space and was soon nothing more than a red and blue blur.

Batman thought he was going to rip off the engine, like he did the other fighters, but instead the dark knight sat wide-eyed as Superman tore through the engine itself. Fire sprouted into space and quickly turned into vacuum. Superman ripped through the engine and then started to tear the metal from the inside. No more than a minute later, the huge engine detached from the ship as explosions still blew from the frigate backside, where the engine used to be.

"Sir, the analysis is complete. The frigate has been completely neutralized by the Superman."

"Thanks Alfred" Batman brought the Bat-fighter closer to the wreckage, scanning for Superman. Batman scanned closely in the wreckage, and saw metal twisting and bending from inside the frigate. Enhancing the image, Batman saw Superman emerge into space and begin slowly floating to the Bat-Fighter.

"So you found the base?" exhaled Superman as he reached the bow of the Bat-Fighter.

"Argos Rho, Gorgon system, planet Sharblu" Batman replied.

Superman looked away for a second then smiled, "Blue star, good. I'll take care of the facility there and make sure they can never create an armada again."

Batman nodded his head, "I think its best you stay away from Ivy's primary operations, at least for now."

Superman floated right to the cockpit window, "It was nice meeting you, and thanks for all your help. If you ever need any assistance, look me up, I won't be far." Superman then nodded his head, smiling and then rocketed away to the closest Mass Relay.

Batman followed the red blue streak until it was out of the system, and then nodded his helmeted head in approval.

"Sir, can this Superman be trusted?" asked Alfred.

"For now, and if he is handling the main resource base, we can now focus entirely on Ivy"


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11.

"Please forgive me" pleaded the stubby alien; volus do not kneel well and so it was bowing as low as it could get, "it was not my fault."

"Of course it wasn't" the voice was soft and intoxicating, "you are forgiven Pin Quin." The beautiful emerald asari caressed her hand along the volus' mask, causing him to close his eyes under his suit in ecstasy.

"Thank you, Ivy" the volus breathed in relief. The green asari smiled and withdrew her hand. She turned and walked into her extravagant garden, disappearing in the flora. The black and white garbed volus turned and started his walk back to his base. He unhitched a walking cane from his back and began the slow walk out of the garden.

Life was good for the volus. He started out as a banker with the Citadel and after several run-ins with gangster types, he realized how much more money he could make with them. Not much of a fighter, Pin Quin could easily manipulate banking records and soon was an asset of the criminal empire. Since those days, Ivy has given him his own crew of turian mercenaries and put him in charge of certain operations. The latest being shipments of red sand coming into the Citadel. He walked with a slight limp out of the garden area and down a dark hallway to where his Kodiak shuttle was waiting for him.

"Penguin" growled a gruff voice from the shadows.

Pin Quin hated that name. Early in his criminal career, a human mercenary working under him called him a penguin, comparing him to the Earth-born flightless bird. The mercenary did not live long, but the name got around to his subordinates. Now no one says the name to his face, except those who wish to mock him…or threaten him.

"Who's there?" heavily breathed the small volus, looking into the darkness of the hallway.

Two piercing blue eyes rounded a corner of the hallway. The figure was over eight feet tall, towering over the small volus. Pin Quin recognized him immediately; he was Ivy's enforcer and right hand associate, Bane. The volus took two steps back, intimated by the hulking krogan.

"You were in charge of the shipments, Penguin" snarled the masked krogan.

"I…I already told Ivy it wasn't my fault. She said-"

"What she said is irrelevant, you failed your task" Bane said as he approached the volus.

"The original shipment was raided by C-Sec through an anonymous tip. I talked with my contacts at Omega, but they are experiencing difficulties with their shipments…" the volus trailed off. The krogan's eyes flared with biotic intensity as he effortlessly grabbed the volus and lifted him to eye level.

"What happened!?" yelled the krogan. Pin Quin started to breathe heavier, causing his respirator to quicken.

"My contacts said there was some kind of Bat on Omega and that he hired a team out there to disrupt activities," Pin Quin flailed his legs trying to escape the iron grip of the krogan, "I've ordered a new shipment from Illium though and it should be arriving soon, please that's all I know." The krogan let loose the volus, causing him fall with a thud.

"The Bat…I've run into him before, he is nothing but a nuisance, much like you."

The volus used his cane to help him to his feet, "I can guarantee the next shipment will be here with no trouble."

The krogan began to walk past the volus towards the garden area and stopped with his back facing the volus, "For your sake, I hope your right."

The volus dusted himself off and took a final deep breath, continuing his walk to his waiting shuttle. Pin Quin realized that Poison Ivy was nothing but a pretty face, Bane was in charge; a truth he dare not reveal to anyone or else suffer Bane's wrath.

* * *

The Batwing's engines hummed softly as they were shutting down. Batman sighed in the cock pit and then hit some switches and buttons on the holographic displays, opening the canopy. He flipped himself out and started a slow walk down the stairs of the platform the Batwing rested on. Draping the cape around him, he started walking across the large technological cave's floor.

"Sir, your meal is prepared" stated the synthesized butler's voice throughout the cave.

"Thank you Alfred" Batman said realizing his voice modulator was still active, causing his voice to sound more menacing. He shook his head and made his way to the armory.

Stepping inside, motion sensors tracked his movements causing robotic arms to sprout from the walls. Casey stood still lifting his arms while the robot arms took the Batman armor one piece at a time. First were the foot and leg pieces, followed by the gauntlets and helmet, last was the chest and cape. Underneath the armor, Casey wore a thin black skin suit; he ran a hand through his hair and stepped into a wash room of the armory to take a quick shower.

Minutes later Casey walked out barefoot in black trunks and a towel around his shoulders. He strode over to the main consoles and promptly sat in the leather chair. Casey swiveled the chair to the table next to him and uncovered the meal that had been laid out. Looking at the food in front of him caused the young man to raise an eyebrow.

"What is this?" asked Casey staring at the purple meat cut in front of him.

"A salarian dish, Sir, one you specifically mentioned to save the recipe for."

"I must have been trying to impress someone" Casey replied after shrugging and cutting into the purple meat. After finishing, he returned to the main screens and started to look over all updates. Apparently his new red and blue ally had done a swift job at taking down the shipping yard on Gorgon that created the merc armada. Casey nodded in approval as he moved on to other updates.

On his way back from mercenary encounter, Alfred had mentioned that another large shipment of red sand was being sent from Illium to the same coordinates the previous large shipment was being sent to. Casey had told him to track the shipment until he was back in the cave. The red sand was now only halfway to the Citadel and would arrive in less than five hours.

Casey yawned. He realized that he had been awake for over thirty hours. He rubbed his eyes. After thinking about it, every part of his body ached. He stretched his back and arms in the chair.

"Alfred, monitor the shipment as well as normal channels and let me know if anything happens" Casey said as he got up from the chair and slowly started for the stairs to the upper manor.

"Will do, Sir"

* * *

-Five Hours Later-

"And you had no problems?"

"None, Mr. Quin" replied a turian mercenary.

"Good, good. Make sure to transfer the shipment from the frigate to the cargo vehicles quickly and quietly. We have a schedule to keep."

The volus stood next to a large metal container in the middle of the cargo yard. The turian mercenary group was scatted all over the warehouse, unloading metal crates full of red sand.

The echo-locater in Batman's left 'horn' on his helmet identified twelve mercenaries throughout the warehouse. The volus was obviously in charge and so Batman tagged him in his HUD as a VIP. The dark knight was crouched atop several of the large metal containers overlooking the mercenaries. His ocular enhancers marked the four mercenaries who were there simply as guards, carrying heavy assault weapons. The other eight were busy going back and forth to the large frigate that had made port next the warehouse and other cargo vehicles.

Batman leaped off the container, extending his cape, and gliding down to one of the lower containers. He landed quietly, not wanting to alert any of the mercenaries. He crouched down and moved slowly to the edge, observing two of the turians taking a smoke break away from the others.

"…anyway, we should get back, or the 'Penguin' will start squawking at us" laughed a turian as he tossed his cigarette and left to join the others.

"Hey, I'll be there, just let me find some peace and quiet or something, okay?" replied the remaining alien, who stood directly underneath where Batman was crouched. The caped knight held his black and blue omni-tool right over top of the turian, doing a scan of his image and voice pattern.

Batman had completed his scan and started adjustments on his omni-tool while still watching the remaining mercenary below him. With his calibrations complete, Batman swiftly jumped down from the container, directly behind the smoking turian. With no effort, Batman put the mercenary in a turian designed sleeper hold while covering the mercenary's mouth. Within seconds, the turian was out cold. The dark knight dragged the unconscious alien around the corner of the container, finding an open one and setting the unconscious mercenary inside.

Batman climbed back atop the container he was perched on before and listened with his audio channels to see if anyone was alert to his presence. Satisfied, he moved across the containers, staying in the shadows. Batman spotted three more of the workers as they were heading back to the freight ship to get another load of cargo. He leaped down onto the floor and unclipped three small puck-like discs from his belt. He placed the discs in a triangle formation on three different cargo containers at eye level.

Batman crouched as he moved like a ghost between the opening of two cargo containers. On the other side of the opening the three mercenaries were walking by, sighing and breathing hard. Batman melted into the shadows as he activated his omni-tool in front of him, creating a decoy hologram of the turian mercenary he had taken out first. Batman then adjusted his omni-tool, causing the decoy to play a fabricated voice that sounded identical to the unconscious turian's.

"Hey, I found something!"

The three mercenaries turned and saw one of the other workers looking at them and gesturing them to see what he had found. Batman directed the decoy to walk towards the triangle formation trap he had set across from him. The mercenaries shrugged and walked down the opening between the containers, following what they thought was an associate. The turian group walked right past where Batman was hidden, as they turned the corner and continued following the decoy.

"Hey, what's this all about man?" asked one of the mercenaries, as the turian they were following suddenly stopped at the end of the corridor. Batman watched and pressed a final button, causing the hologram to fade and activating the placed discs. The three discs each flashed a dark blue once before they dispersed a powerful knockout gas from the tops of them. The mercenaries fell instantly after inhaling the clear, odorless gas.

Batman emerged from the shadows across from the knocked out workers. He was still crouched as he moved around the corner to where the mercenaries were originally passing by. Batman peered around a corner, utilizing both his ocular enhancements and echo-locator to pinpoint the remaining eight mercenaries. No one seemed aware of the dark knight stalking the warehouse, strategizing an attack plan to get to the volus leader.


	12. Chapter 12

6 years ago

Casey flipped several switches, turning off the primary systems of the stealth fighter. He had landed in an area just outside of the one of the main cities of the Salarian homeworld. He made sure there were no life signs in the immediate area and so started change into his civilian clothes, to suppress suspicion of a human on Sur'Kesh. He thought about putting on his utility belt, but decided against it, hoping to just scope out the people. Casey rationalized that if he did run into any trouble, he had his custom designed blue and black omni-tool.

Casey opened the hatch to the cockpit and jumped onto the jungle floor only to come face to face with half a dozen salarians in dark uniforms with their weapons drawn. Thoughts raced through Casey's mind, thinking if he could disarm the squad and overpower them. He had heard of salarians being quick and knew that he would only be able to take out two or three before the others started firing their weapons. Casey's dark eyes shot to each of the salarians as he slowly raised his hands overtop his head.

"Casey Kane, please come with us" spoke the salarian in front of Casey. Just because they knew who he was, did not mean this was a simple mugging; many knew of Casey Kane.

"Doesn't look like I have a choice" smiled Casey, putting on the rich-boy façade. Two of the squad moved, cuffing his hands behind him and patting him down for weapons. Satisfied, they nodded to the leader.

"This way Mr. Kane" gestured the salarian.

"Can I at least secure my ship?" Casey asked shrugging his shoulders. The leader turned around and nodded. "Alfred, secure the ship, I should be back in about 10-20 minutes" Casey said over his shoulder, towards his fighter behind him.

A salarian standing to Casey's left smiled at the comment, knowing this confrontation would last longer than that. Casey could only smile back as he started to walk with the squad, knowing the 10 code he had just spoken activated a signal on his omni-tool that Alfred could narrow in on and track his every move, just in case.

The group led him through the jungle to a Kodiak ship that was parked only about 100 feet away from where Casey's ship was. Before entering it, one of the salarians placed an all-black helmet over Casey's head, nullifying all of his senses. Casey figured they did it so that he would not see their base of operations. He was led into the Kodiak ship and sat down in one of the seats, taking off not long after. Casey counted in his head and calculated that the flight was approximately two hours long. The ship landed, as once again the salarians picked up Casey and lead him off the ship. Casey counted the steps and eighty-three paces later was sat down in an office chair.

The deprivation helmet was taken off of him by a guard who quickly walked out of the room. Casey was still adjusting his eyes to the light, but deduced he was in a lab, from seeing salarians in white coats walk outside the sliding door. He also figured he was underground, from the moisture in the air. That was when Casey realized the people he came to Sur'Kesh looking for, may have found him first.

Just then a salarian walked in through the door followed by two guards. The first salarian sat down across from Casey with a table in-between them. The salarian sat in silence, staring at Casey for nearly thirty seconds before breaking the silence.

"Mr. Kane, I am Commander Kirrahe. We have been tracking your movements for some time, watching you go from one to system to another" spoke the Commander. Casey studied his every word and watched him closely. The Commander continued, "We wonder why a high profile person such as yourself is trying to stay so far off the grid and why you are here now?"

"Who exactly is 'we'?" Casey asked innocently, already sure he knew the answer. Kirrahe squinted at him before replying.

"This facility is a base of operations for the Special Tasks Group. I have been assigned to interrogate you due to concerns that you may be acting as an infiltration unit, gathering information on the core species' planets. What do you have to say about this?"

Casey took a deep breathe in and thought to himself, _These guys have done their homework, they've been tracking me probably since the beginning. Only reason they probably saw my fighter was one of their units saw me land. Might be best to be straightforward._

"I came here to do what I have been doing for the past fourteen years, learning all I can about your culture and to help in any way I can" Casey said putting his palms down on the table.

"Why do we need help from a spoiled rich-boy who is probably just vacationing around the galaxy?" Kirrahe retorted.

"I don't need to explain it to you, but I am acquiring skills from across the galaxy to push my body and mind to its limits in order to protect people from injustice. I came here to Sur'Kesh to learn what I could from the salarians and to possibly pass on what I have learned. If the STG is not willing to help me, I will find someplace else that will" Casey said defiantly to Kirrahe. The Commander sat back in his chair, thinking to himself. He finally leaned forward and seemed to choose his words very carefully.

"The STG will have no part in your crusade to get revenge on what happened to your parents. You will be escorted back to your ship and will not attempt to contact the STG in the future, understood?"

Casey respectfully bowed his head as they both got up from their chairs. The guards moved behind Casey, again placing the deprivation helmet on him and cuffing his hands behind his back. The trip back was the same as when he arrived; a two hour flight in the Kodiak and then a small hike until his cuffs and helmet was taken off. Adjusting to the sunlight, Casey blinked a few times before seeing Kirrahe standing in front of him.

"Mr. Kane, as I said, the STG will have no part in your crusade, but if your words are true; it sounds like a noble cause that I would like to be a part of. I think there is much we can teach other" Kirrahe said as he extended his three fingered hand out. Casey nodded as he shook the alien's hand, creating a secret alliance.

* * *

Over the next few months, Kirrahe had introduced Casey to the company of troops he was personally in command of as an observer from the Alliance. He was to be treated as a recruit in all exercises. The company was well organized with an operation center set off from the main base; it was an off shoot of the main STG compound. Kirrahe could train whoever he wanted there without the higher ups of the STG ever finding out.

The small base held nearly 250 units, most still in training. The base consisted of training areas, resting quarters and a mess hall. It reminded Casey of Alliance training, only much faster paced. Casey had trained with the Drell, and possessed faster reflexes than most humans; but the Salarians brought new meaning to 'quick'. The STG training regimen pushed his mind and body to react faster to situations. Kirrahe would often give speeches to Casey and the other recruits, often telling them when in combat how important it is to hold the line by thinking fast and reacting even faster.

The weeks blurred away into months as everyday brought new challenges for Casey. He used his skills from previous training to meditate and focus his mind to think and react faster than he normally would. Kirrahe started to become impressed with Casey's ability to keep up with the others.

Combat training was only one part of the STG regimen. A key part to becoming certified for the STG was to analyze complex problems quickly and efficiently. The situations put Casey's detective skills to the test, forcing him to analyze hundreds of scenarios at once in order to find a solution. Most of the tests put forth a problem that needed to be solved within a very small time limit or else suffer more grueling physical punishment.

Casey stayed at the base for two years, training every day, exchanging ideas with the salarians and even accompanying them on several infiltration missions. Over the years, Casey had learned much of deceptive salarian's technology, particularly taking interest in the decoy hologram that could distract enemies. Casey thought he might be able to improve the tech to be able to move and perhaps be able to scan others to replicate them as holograms. The scientists loved the ideas and as a gift allowed Casey to take some the tech with him.

That day came when Casey realized there was nothing more the Salarians could teach him. He had made many friends while staying on Sur'Kesh and said goodbye to each of them. Over the two years, Kirrahe had been promoted to Captain and put in charge of an elite infiltration team. On the day he found out Casey was leaving, he made sure to make it out to base to say goodbye.

"It's too bad, could really use you on my new team. But I wish you well and good luck" Kirrahe said once again holding his hand out for Casey.

"Thank you Sir and don't forget to hold that line" smiled Casey as he shook the Captain's hand and climbed into his fighter. He activated all systems and saluted once more the salarians below him before taking off into the sky.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Present day

The armed turians had no idea what stalked in the shadows above them. Four armed guards stood watch, spread throughout the warehouse. Only two of them were standing around the volus leader, who was nose deep in a datapad.

"Tell them to hurry up" muttered the busy volus, never looking up from his datapad. One of the turians nodded and began walking to where the other workers and guards were in the main part of the warehouse.

The turian mercenary rounded a cargo container, "Alright ladies, boss wants you guys to pick it…up." He stopped dead in his tracks as he looked around the warehouse. In front of him were the two other turian guards and all four workers unconscious and bound together by a thick black cable. They were breathing, but looked to be in a lot of pain. The mercenary took a few steps forwards, before stepping on something. He looked down and saw dismantled avenger assault rifle pieces laid out in front of the beaten crew.

"Oh shit" the turian said to himself as he turned and ran back to where the other turian and volus was. The mercenary ran in an all-out sprint, reaching his boss out of breath, "Sir, we've been compromised!" The other turian checked his rifle and raised it up, sweeping it from side to side.

"What is it?" the other turian asked.

"I'm not sure, form up around the boss"

The volus began to look around, wondering what had spooked his hired help. The two turians started to back up slowly, putting Pin Quin closer into a dead end.

Quin heard a noise behind him and turned to investigate. Above him were more cargo containers shrouded in the darkness of the shadows. Satisfied it was nothing; the stubby volus turned back to his guards but became wide-eyed seeing them unconscious on the floor with a dark armored figure standing over them.

Quin remained with his eyes wide as he slowly began to back up into the cargo container behind him. He knew there was nowhere to go as he looked into the piercing white eyes of the caped man. The terrifying figure didn't say a word as he slowly approached the short volus with its cape draped around him. Quin was desperate and reached for the cane attached to his back. He quickly brought it up, as it extended itself, and pointed it towards the armored figure.

The cane fired a single shotgun round from its hidden chamber. The blast caused the figure's blue shielding to light up, deflecting the shot, and then quickly dissipate again. Not affected by the attack, the black clad man grabbed the volus by the collar of his environmental suit, lifting him in the air and pinning him against a container.

"Pin Quin, banker of Poison Ivy"

The figure's voice was deep and gruff, causing Quin to realize who the person was; The Batman. The volus' breathing got heavier as he wriggled in the air. Knowing there was nothing he could do; Quin stopped fighting, composed himself and stared into the cold white eyes of the bat.

"You can do whatever you want to me, but there is nothing worse than what they will do to me if I talk." The Batman tightened his grip on the volus' suit, leaning his helmet directly in front of Pin Quin.

"I'll change that" replied the dark knight in his low tone.

Batman began to activate all systems in his fighter as he played back Pin Quin's recording over the speakers. The volus leader gave up information so quick; Batman had to record the entire conversation. All it took was a couple broken fingers and the threat of a long fall before the volus started giving up all the information he knew. The caped crusader had also copied all the data on the leader's datapad, just for good measure.

"Alfred, start a data-mine on the Penguin's files" Batman stated as he plotted a course back to the cave.

"Right away, Sir"

The Bat-Wing cut through the space around the Citadel with stealth systems engaged. Batman took a second to look at passing ships and thought about how he had left Penguin and his gang. After the brief interrogation, he had strung up Ivy's banker from the warehouse ceiling and then rounded up the rest of the gang below the unconscious volus. He tossed down another of his custom designed homing beacons, keyed into C-Sec's encoded signal, so that they would be able to find the scene more easily.

"Sir, I have only completed 29% of the data-mine, but I have found something rather interesting" informed the artificial intelligence.

"What is it?" asked Batman slowing down the fighter.

"It seems Ivy has put out an assassination order for an officer in Citadel Security, one Armando-Owen Bailey. Apparently he has been investigating Ivy's affairs for some time and may have stumbled upon something he was not meant to know."

Batman sat silently for a moment, thinking to himself and then replied, "When is this hit supposed to happen?"

"Within the day, Sir" Alfred said apologetically.

Batman began to readjust the holo-screens in front of him, "Alfred, plot a course to Bailey's current location."

* * *

It had been a long day. The seasoned C-Sec officer strode out of the office holding his head. He had just got off the line with a mother who had lost her two sons to a madman. He tried to explain how C-Sec had apprehended the culprit and how he was awaiting sentence, but the mother would hear none of it. She was too devastated about the loss of her children.

Bailey couldn't blame her. He rubbed his eyes once more and let out a long sigh. He walked over to where his skycar was parked and opened the hatch. The C-Sec officer got in and activated all systems as the skycar rose off the ground. He shifted the systems and hovered into the major traffic flow outside the building. Bailey's blue skycar wedged into traffic and glided along with the other cars. Bailey made small adjustments on the controls of the skycar when he heard a buzz throughout the skycar.

Suddenly Bailey realized he was no longer controlling the skycar. He tried to move the wheel, but nothing was happening. The skycar deviated from the traffic flow as it dived down. Bailey attempted to regain control by turning off all systems, but with no avail. The skycar swerved left, through an alley way between two large buildings. The alley way was dark, with several walkways connecting the two buildings. The skycar started to slow down as it turned around and landed on top of one of the dark walkways.

The hatch opened up, leaving Bailey looking around for answers. He slowly got out and reached for the pistol he had on his belt. Bailey tried to turn on his omni-tool's light, but it wouldn't turn on.

"You won't need that."

Bailey swung his pistol around in the darkness searching for the origin of the raspy tone.

"Who's there?" asked Bailey.

"An ally" said the voice, in a different location, as if it were moving around the C-Sec officer.

"Allies don't hide in the dark" replied Bailey, keeping his pistol ready in front of him. Then bright lights flooded the alley way, coming from the opposite side of Bailey. He was blinded by the intense light, squinting in the direction the glow was coming from. As his eyes began to adjust to the light, he could see a dark silhouette outlined by the bright light.

Bailey figured that if this was an ambush, his attacker would have already made their move. He cautiously brought his pistol down and began to walk closer to the dark silhouette.

"You're not here to kill me I assume" Bailey stated as he put his hand over his brow, shading his eyes from the light.

"Poison Ivy has put a hit out on you and I want to know why" the dark shadow's voice echoed through the alley.

"Who are you?" Bailey asked with an eyebrow raised. He waited for an answer and after a few seconds of silence, Bailey continued, "You wouldn't happen to be that Bat character I've been getting reports about would ya?"

The dark figure remained silent, never even shifting its weight. If everything Bailey had heard about this vigilante was true, he was indeed an ally, but with questionable motives.

"I thought you were just a rumor, a myth" exclaimed Bailey.

"Poison Ivy" stoically replied the dark shadow.

"Right," Bailey nodded as he put his pistol in its hilt, "She's crazy that one. Few days ago I found some intel on her younger years, I assume she doesn't want me digging further."

"What did you find?" asked the dark voice.

"You mind dimming those lights?" Bailey asked. After a few seconds of silence and the lights remaining as bright as they were, Bailey sighed.

"Right, well I dug up some old information on a young, green skinned Ardat Yakshi on the run and drifting from colony to colony. She had left a small body count behind her wherever she went until she was picked up by a passing mercenary band. She was a no one, but then she started to take over ever major crime group in Citadel space until becoming the unofficial crime lord she is today."

The dark knight stood silently again, seeming to think over the information. Bailey cleared his throat softly, feeling a bit awkward. Then the Bat broke the silence.

"She didn't take over the mercenary group…" the voice trailed off as the bright lights suddenly cut out, leaving Bailey to once again search through the darkness.

Then dim lights that were spread throughout the alley flickered on. Bailey blinked a few times and looked all around, seeing no one else around him. He let out a small gruff chuckle and then started to walk back to his skycar.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

3.5 years ago

"He has been out there for six months."

"Persistent, isn't he?" The other asari nodded her head. The two of them looked out over a balcony at a small makeshift camp. Next to the dwindling fire pit was a sleek, black fighter vessel. The camp site was small, circular around the fire pit.

The two asari looked over the camp, but did not see the man that had been living there for the past six months. In the dead silence of the night, the pair could barely hear the grunts and exclamations of the man. At night he went away from the temple perimeter and trained in the plains. Whispers through the temple rumored that he went out there to do flips and fight with imaginary foes. He scared some of the sisters in the temple, being the first human to arrive at the forgotten asari outpost.

"Perhaps his intentions are pure, had that crossed your mind Justicar?"

The asari wearing light armor folded her arms over her chest, "Even if they are, we cannot trust him around the other maidens."

The asari in white robes smiled gracefully under the light of the two orbiting moons, "It will be good for them all to mingle."

"You are too trusting, Matriarch."

"Perhaps, Enalda" replied the wise asari.

It was day now; Casey had finished his daily calisthenics and was now sitting in front of the burnt out fire pit. His eyes were closed as he sat with his legs crossed and hands folded in front of him. Casey had learned the importance of mediation over his sixteen years of training. He slowed his breathing and heart rate down, sensing everything around him. Casey slightly tilted his head as he felt something enter his area.

"Reconsider my proposal?" calmly asked Casey without ever opening his eyes or moving from his sitting position. The Justicar stopped in her tracks, standing fifteen feet from where Casey was sitting. Casey could hear her sigh and then walk through his camp, taking a seat across from where he sat.

"As I told you before, I am not worried about the sisters' safety if you were allowed in, I would be worried about yours" the Justicar stated.

Casey opened his eyes and looked at the Justicar, "And as I have told you before, I can handle myself just fine, but part of the reason I am here is to defend against such…advances."

The Justicar looked down at the ground and then around at the open scenery, "It is my duty to watch over and protect all those within this temple. But by the code, were one of these maidens to be 'let loose' upon anyone, it would be my duty to kill them. The Matriarch of this temple believes your intentions are pure and will allow you to stay. Now know this; if I sense even the slightest bit of trouble, I will have no choice but to uphold my code and eliminate you, understood?" Casey had come to admire Justicars, an ancient order of warriors honor-bound to uphold a code. He respected their resolve, even if he didn't fully approve of their methods.

"Yes and thank you Justicar Enalda" Casey said as he stood up and politely bowed his head.

"Do not thank me yet, for you are still the first human to set foot into this Ardat-Yakshi temple and chances are you won't be stepping out." Enalda stood up and gestured to the main entrance of the temple, "They have prepared a room for you separate from the sisters. I will lead you there when you are ready."

Casey had few personal items with him he had to grab from the fighter as he followed the armored Justicar into the temple. He started reminding himself why he had come to a forgotten asari colony planet. He wanted to learn from the asari and more about natural biotics. Casey had learned some defense against biotics from the drell, but he needed more. He had heard from outlying fuel depots of a shrouded Ardat-Yakshi temple and knew it was the perfect place. Here he could learn all about biotics, asari and about the rare genetic mutation resulting in Ardat-Yakshi. _What better way to learn about a species than to study their demons?_

The Justicar led him through the inner chamber, passing by statues of asari along the walls. Other asari had come to the main hall to see what was going on and began whispering amongst themselves. Casey watched every person carefully, keeping up with the Justicar. She turned a corner and led him into a medium sized room that had been prepared for him.

"The Matriarch would like you to make yourself comfortable and join her and the maidens for dinner" the Justicar said without looking at Casey. She then turned and walked away down the large hallway.

Casey stepped into the room and laid his military duffle bag on the ground. He walked around the room, noting the nice view it had of the surrounding plains and lake. He returned to his bag and unpacked his one decent set of clothing and prepared for dinner.

The dinner was awkward; Casey strode into the large dining hall with all eyes on him. Total the temple held nearly 150 asari, all struck with the rare genetic abnormality. Casey was invited to sit with the Matriarch of the temple at the front of the hall. He sat across from her, "Thank you Matriarch for allowing me to stay here, it is a great honor."

"The honor is all ours, young man; it is not often we get visitors here, let alone a human." The Matriarch smiled gently at Casey. The Justicar stood at the end of the table watching stoically over everyone. Other asari sat at the table around the Matriarch, senior sisters Casey assumed. Before a short prayer was led by the Matriarch, she announced to the hall that the human Casey Kane would be staying among them for some time and should be treated as a guest. Quiet conversations could be heard throughout the hall as the sisters began their meals. Casey was surveying the room, when he was interrupted by one of the asari sitting next to him.

"If you do not mind me asking, what has brought you here Sir Kane?" asked the fair asari in a quiet voice. The Matriarch smiled again as she looked to Casey. He swallowed the food he had in his mouth and cleared his throat.

"I am here to learn; learn all I can about your way of life, learn new skills and maybe show you things that I have learned while travelling." Casey noticed in the corner of his eye the Justicar fold her arms over her chest. He looked around and saw that for the most part, the asari seemed happy for his arrival.

The first few days at the temple were uneventful. Some of the Matriarch's maidens gave him the tour of the temple grounds, under the watchful eye of Justicar Enalda. They showed him the areas where the asari exercise, do crafts and study. Casey was impressed by the size of the temple, being much bigger than he thought.

Weeks pass, everyone was a little more comfortable with Casey there. On one night after the sisters had gone to their rooms, Casey remained up. He walked around the dark halls, admiring the statues and portraits. He made his way to area where the asari exercised and trained their bodies. Casey recognized a few training machines, but was completely baffled by others. He slipped off his shirt and began using the equipment, slow at first but building up to an intense workout. The room was sealed as to not disturb others, leaving Casey to train in silence, until he heard the door open and close. He was in the middle of doing 200 pull-ups when he heard the noise.

Instinctively he leapt down and assumed a crouching position. Casey had purposefully left the lights off, being more comfortable in the dark. He crept silently through the gym, surveying every nook and cranny around him. Then a glowing blue orb manifested from across the room and streaked towards him. Casey rolled his left shoulder backwards, flipping himself over as the biotic orb struck the wall behind him. His piercing eyes peered through the darkness, searching for his attacker, but instead he heard the sound of clapping.

Casey took a more relaxed stance as the lights in the room flickered on. On the other side of the room, Justicar Enalda strode towards Casey with a half-smile on her face. She stopped in front of Casey, ceasing her clapping slightly, "Very impressive."

Casey wiped sweat from his brow, "Glad you approve."

"I just needed to be sure" smirked Enalda. "When you came to us all those months ago, claiming you wanted to learn skills to punish the wicked and defend the innocent, I was not sure what to believe. You said that you had travelled all across the galaxy, acquiring skills and techniques to battle injustice. Now I believe you." Casey studied the Justicar as he put his black shirt back on. "And as long as you remain true to your word, I feel it is my duty within the code to help you achieve these goals."

Casey put out a hand, "Thank you."

The Justicar looked at the hand for a moment and then shook it, "You are welcome."

* * *

Months go by; Casey's days are filled following the sisters in their day to day chores. He studied with them, ate with them and trained with them. Among the maidens were scientific minds who explained how asari biotics worked. He worked day and night understanding all there was to know.

Being in close quarters with the blue beauties did sometimes cause Casey's mind to wander, but he always reminded himself why these asari were here. Enalda made it clear the day he arrived on the planet, these asari are cursed with a natural desire to crush the mind of beings through sexual exploitation. However hard he it may be for him to ignore those feelings, the asari here were working twice as hard. Casey realized that is why the Matriarch allowed him there, to strengthen not only his will, but the sisters as well.

These thoughts were suppressed by constant activity. He trained relentlessly, in both the classroom and gym. Occasionally he would ask some of the maidens to attack him with their biotics; he needed to know what it felt like to have the wind knocked out of him by the biotic power first hand.

A year had passed. Casey had started a daily running regime around the large temple. He was finishing up his run, walking up the stairs to the main entrance where a group of asari were waiting for him. He knew most them, having made several new friends in his year staying there.

"Casey, we have a surprise for you" giggled one of the asari.

"Hhhmm…do we need to inform Enalda first?" teased Casey as he followed the group into the main hall.

The asari laughed, "No no, come on." The group led him to the area where the temple maidens conducted crafts and sowing to create wonderful art pieces. They stopped him in the middle of the room and directed his attention to where another group of asari waited. "Okay, now!" the asari exclaimed.

Then the second group of asari turned around and grabbed something off the table behind them and held it in front of them. It was a thick black cloth that was about five feet long. Casey slowly walked up to the cloth and ran his hand along it. It was cold to the touch and made from a very thick material, that almost shimmered with a dark blue.

"You didn't have to do this" said Casey as he looked around at the group of asari.

"We thought it would help you on your secret mission" laughed one of the maidens. Casey figured that word was getting around of his real intention for learning so much about biotics and hanging around a Justicar.

Another asari to Casey's left chimed in, "It's a knit from cloth on Thessia. The entire weave is imbued with biotic energy, able to absorb and disperse other biotic power. We want it to protect you while you are fighting the bad guys."

Casey thought to himself how that could be useful; the ability to block all incoming biotic attacks. "Thank you, this will certainly come in handy in whatever secret mission you guys are talking about" joked Casey.

The next day he returned to his personal fighter to gather his gear to train in full garb. Casey grabbed his old recon hood and body armor as well as utility belt. He returned to his room in the temple and put on the familiar armor. It had been a while since he wore the full armor, it felt nostalgic. He folded the recon hood over his face and then walked to the bed with the black cape laid out upon it. He used advanced magnetics to pin the cape to his shoulders, letting it fall down behind him.

Standing in the mirror, he draped the black weave around him and studied himself. Casey nodded and strode through the halls in the armor. Some of the maidens stood in the hall, stricken by Casey's appearance; a reaction he was not against.

For months he trained using the new cape against biotic assailants. In time it became an extension of his own body, able to thwart any biotic attack against him. After one session with a group of maidens 'attacking' him, he noticed it had a tear in it. He removed his recon hood and made his way to the crafting area. He greeted the sisters there and asked them for a favor.

"This cape is amazing; I cannot thank you all enough, but I have a request."

The maidens looked up from their work and saw the tear in the weave, "You need another cape?"

"Actually, I need 5,000," replied Casey, "on your own time and I will pay for each if you could send them to this address." He gave them an address to an abandoned warehouse on the Citadel owned by Kane Charity. The maidens were happy to fill the order for Casey.

Casey had now spent two years at the Ardat-Yakshi sanctuary; he felt he had almost learned everything there was to know from the asari, except one. After changing his clothes, he went to visit the Matriarch. It had taken him some time to figure out that the Matriarch was herself an Ardat-Yakshi, staying in the sanctuary just like the others. He knocked on the elegant doors, and noticed they were open. He peeked inside and saw the Matriarch meditating.

"Come in, Kane" she said with a smile on her face. Casey walked in and took a seat in front of the old asari.

"I wanted to ask you something"

"You want to know how to defend against Ardat-Yakshis" the Matriarch said with a smile without opening her eyes.

Casey was partially taken back by the comment, "Yes, is there a way to?"

The Matriarch slowly opened her eyes, "Only by the most willful of beings." The asari smiled as Casey gazed deep into her jet black eyes.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Present Day

Between the Penguin's ramblings and decrypted files, it wasn't difficult to pinpoint the location of Ivy's lair. It was hidden perfectly near the Presidium Commons, in an offshoot area that could be accessed through the Commons or on the outside of the Presidium ring.

While memorizing the schematics for the hidden base, Casey couldn't help but admire the construction. The base was built to fully integrate with the Citadel's systems. It siphoned water and power from the Presidium to regulate the extravagant garden Ivy's base held.

The Batwing hovered on the outside of the Presidium's hull, magnetically parallel to the metal surface. All systems were on standby as Batman had made his way to the secret entrance of Ivy's grotto. The Dark Knight stood with this cape waving in space as he typed away on his blue omni-tool. The hack was a bit more complex than he originally thought, but nothing he couldn't handle.

Being how his father was a technical genius, Casey learned how to interact with advanced tech. It had always come pretty natural to him, but every now and then came across tech he didn't know. Through his travels he had run into many quarians all on their Pilgrimage; he often found them scavenging parts on the underbelly of society. He could empathize with them; travelling around, finding their way in the universe. Casey would often exchange stories with them as they shared their technical skills.

The blue shaded omni-tool pinged, indicating the hangar door had been unlocked. Batman crouched down and watched as nothing happened in the place he was sure the hangar was. Under his helmet, Casey lowered his eyebrows. On a whim he moved his pupils in a pattern that scrolled through the heads up displays different vision filters. He stopped on the one that detected electric systems; specifically holographic images. As he suspected, the hangar door was concealed by an image of the Presidiums hull being projected overtop of it, and with the system unlocked, Batman simply walked through the holographic image.

Walking into the bright room, Batman had to readjust his visual filters back to normal as he scanned around the area. As he walked forward, still with zero gravity, he reengaged the hangar door from his omni-tool. The doors slowly closed as the artificial gravity was reinstated.

Doors on the opposite side of the medium sized hangar opened with a squad of four running in with weapons ready. Batman had anticipated security would check out the unauthorized hangar breach and so quickly activated his tactical cloak, disappearing from sight.

The security team looked all around with one of them eventually saying it must have been a malfunction. The leader of the squad told the other three to stand guard in the hangar until told otherwise and then turned and left through the way they originally came. The squad leader walked calmly as the door leading to the hangar closed behind him. He turned a corner and sighed as he continued down the hall to the restroom. Inside, he first went to the mirror to check himself out when he gasped; behind him materialized a black helmeted figure. The squad leader didn't have time to react any further as the figure wrapped his gauntleted hand around his face.

Batman held on for a few second as the man slipped into unconsciousness. The Caped Crusader then dragged the man to an empty stall and closed the door. He then turned and dislodged a ventilation grate. Batman crouched and carefully reconnected the grate before continuing. Even if he hadn't memorized the entire base's blueprints, he had them displayed in a corner of his vision as he moved through the vents.

It didn't take long before the overwhelming scent of Ivy's garden filled his nostrils. Batman had purposely allowed air to run freely through his helmet when he knew his sense of smell would be useful. He still kept in place a filter that protected him from toxic and other dangerous odors.

He came to an opening, which led into a vast jungle of plants and trees. Batman effortlessly jumped into the green and landed on the soft ground. The foliage was all around; Batman draped his cape around him as the pushed through the thick foliage. He eventually saw a clearing covered in thick grass. The Dark Knight crouched and peered through the plants, surveying the clearing.

He saw nothing but flowers, metal walls and a door on the far side of the grass. Batman monitored all frequencies and sat patiently, waiting for something to happen.

"No need to skulk around Mr. Kane"

The female voice seemed to have come from all around, _an intercom perhaps _thought Batman, and even more disturbing the voice calling him by his real name. Knowing when he was exposed, Batman stood up and walked into the grassy clearing with his cape draped around himself.

"That's better" the soothing voice whispered.

Batman carefully looked all around, searching for the origin of the voice. He then heard a slight rustle behind him and quickly turned to face the jungle and saw her.

She moved gracefully through the plants, blending in with them. She wore a dark green two piece dress that barely covered her light green shimmery skin. She smiled with her seductive eyes as she drew closer to where Batman stood.

"You should have known that I sense everything that happens in here" Ivy said as she put a hand on Batman's shoulder and slowly walked around him. Batman watched her every move as he turned to face her.

"I forgive you Mr. Kane," Ivy whispered walking with her back to Batman. She stopped at the center of the clearing as vine lowered itself in front of her.

Batman squinted, causing his vision to zoom in on the vine. Shimmering over the vine was a blue aura that controlled and manipulated it; Ivy's biotics.

Ivy sat down on the vine, using it as a swing seat to move back and forth, all while staring and smiling at Batman. The Knight said nothing as stared back at the asari.

"Casey, Casey…" the asari sang to herself. She sighed and then looked at Batman, "No need for the secrecy anymore Mr. Kane" smiled Ivy as she motion with her hand for him to come closer to her. Batman began to slowly walk towards her and reached up to his helmet.

The helmet only comes off if it is touched by his specific glove pattern or hands in a certain place on the sides. The air seal disengaged and the bat shaped helmet came off revealing Casey's sharp features. He dropped the helmet at his feet and dropped to one knee in front of Ivy, bowing his head.

"I am yours…" Casey struggled to speak.

"Of course you are and as my champion none will stand in our way" smiled Ivy as she stroked Casey's matted hair. She let the vine dangle free as she knelt down in front of Casey. "Look at me" she commanded.

Casey looked up to her emerald eyes and seemed lost in them. She moved her head forward and held her face in front of his, letting him take in her intoxicating scent. Then she planted a kiss on his ready lips as her eyes became black as night. Casey closed his eyes as she wrapped her hands around his head. Every one of his senses was flooded by her scent. Ivy positioned herself closer to Casey as the world around him faded away until there was only her and him.

Then the garden disappeared as there was nothing but a hazy whiteness all around them. Casey was on his knees, bowing to Ivy, as she paced back and forth in front him.

"Your mind will soon be mine Casey Kane. Even with all your training and experience…you are but a tool for me. Here inside your mind…you will be broken." She stopped in front of Casey and faced him, "Stand up." Casey stood and looked at Ivy with no emotion on his face.

Ivy reached up on her toes to face the taller Casey and stared into his eyes, "You were not the one to defeat him" and then forcefully kissed him. The white area around them brightened as she lip locked with Casey for several seconds, completing the process she had done to countless others. It had come naturally to her as an Ardat-Yakshi, the seduction of a being and then taking them to a place inside their minds and destroying them from within.

Ivy violently pulled back from Casey's lips with shock in her black eyes. She was breathing heavily as the white mental realm around them started to turn to darkness. She looked scared by the dark mist forming around her, causing her view of Casey to disappear.

She began to twist and turn, searching for a way out of the darkness, when she saw two piercing eyes staring back at her through the dark. Ivy froze in fear as the eyes came closer, with a horned figure forming around them. The green skinned asari started to back up seeing the bat in his full, dark armor slowly walk towards her.

"You think you are the first to invade my mind, Ivianna?" he asked in a terrifying tone that rumbled through the now totally void realm.

Ivy was speechless with wide eyes as she looked at Batman through the dark haze. The Dark Knight was only partially lit up as he kept approaching the scared asari and placed his outstretched hand on top of her frilled head.

The haze of darkness began to swirl around her as she stood slack jawed under Batman's hand. The black fog engulfed Ivy, leaving only her echoing screams through the dark void.

Her screams continued as she fell back onto the green grass. Ivy tried to regain herself as she realized she was no longer in the cerebral realm between her and Casey. She was breathing heavily on the grass as she swiped dark blood from her nose. Her thoughts were racing, scattered. She didn't know what was happening; what had just happened. Ivy frantically looked around and saw the figure of her nightmares.

Armored gloves picked up the horned helmet and brought it up to his face. The air tight seal engaged as it came down over; lighting up the piercing white eyes. Ivy became wide eyed once more as her nightmares were suddenly becoming real.

"My training and experience showed me many things, Ivianna" began Batman in his deep, augmented tone.

"Stop saying that name! I am Poison Ivy!" she screamed with tears starting to form in her eyes.

Batman suddenly flung up both of his hands releasing two grenades off to his sides. The small bombs detonated as soon as they struck the ground, igniting the flowers and plants in flames. The intense flames spread to the jungle behind Batman, pumping smoke into the air filters on the ceiling.

Ivy sat in horror as her beloved garden roared in flames. Tears streaked down her face in both anger and sadness, as she let out biotic waves through her hands to the ceiling. Vines that were not on fire yet, came to life and extended towards Batman. In one quick motion, he let out a volley of three batarangs that soared upwards and cut the vines at their base on the ceiling. The vines fell lifelessly to the floor as Ivy slumped down, thoughts still erratic. Batman towered over her as he stood with the growing flames behind him.

"When I stayed in a secret Ardat-Yakshi sanctuary, I learned many things. I stayed there for two years before I earned the Matriarchs trust. She being an Ardat-Yakshi herself trained my mind in ways I cannot describe. I had never experienced such mental torture in my life."

The fire behind Batman roared as green plants sizzled and crackled. Ivy seemed to be in shock, dumbfounded as she gazed at the Bat standing over her. He continued in his dark tone.

"For a whole year she attempted every day to crumble my mind and force me to submit. The Matriarch revealed to me the only true way to overcome mental advances was to retaliate with your own. She could sense darkness within me, one that I had strived my whole life to harness. I taught myself how to use it; how to control it." The last sentence, Batman put emphasis on while standing directly over the frightened Ivy.

Batman often spoke with the Matriarch between training sessions, wanting to know more about the history of the sanctuary. On one occasion she mentioned a runaway; a young Ardat-Yakshi with a rare mutation that caused her to be green instead of blue like all asari. The runaway was ashamed of herself and never truly thought of the temple as home, resenting the others for not embracing the genetic power of the Ardat-Yakshi.

"You ran away, didn't you Ivianna? You had nearly every Justicar in the system searching for you. You became desperate and got mixed up in a smuggling gang" Batman knew he had hit a nerve in Ivy as she looked up at him wondering how he knew so much.

"You would have everyone believe that you just took over the gang and thus began your criminal empire, but that's not true is it?" Batman teased.

"_ENOUGH!"_ boomed the loud, filtered voice. Batman had seen the large krogan wattle into the burning room seconds prior to berating Ivy. The green asari turned away from Batman and saw the krogan standing in the doorway. The weary asari slowly started to crawl towards the krogan. Batman remained steadfast with the inferno blazing behind him, watching the couple carefully.

Ivy had reached the krogan, hugging his leg while whispering, "Bane….darling".

"It was you; you saw a pretty face people would gravitate towards and whose minds would then crumble at her whim. You created a puppet to pose as a puppet-master."

Bane seemed to squint his eyes as though he was smiling under the mask over his mouth. He looked down at Ivy, who was half smiling back to him. "I'm afraid your usefulness has run its course, Osita" Bane said softly as he caressed the asari's face.

Ivy smiled at first but then a scared look washed over her face," No! I love you and you love me; you said you would protect me!" she screamed.

Batman was standing nearly a dozen feet from where Ivy sat in front of Bane. He tried to react to what he knew was about to happen, but was too late. Bane brought his massive biotic infused fist down upon Ivy in a detonation of energy. Batman stood wide-eyed with an outstretched hand; it had happened so fast, where Ivy used to be was now only twisted metal and blood.

Bane stood upright, admiring the smeared blood on his knuckles before looking back to Batman. Batman couldn't help but think that however much they had been through, whether or not Bane ever loved Ivy back, clearly she meant nothing to him.

Bane took a step forward and this time Batman reacted immediately, throwing several batarangs from his wrist gauntlets at Bane's face. Before the small curved blades struck the krogan's face they detonated into a cloud of thick smoke. The dark knight then ran forward, readying a powerful uppercut with both hands, but before the attack could land on the krogan's jaw, Bane leaped through the smoke and grabbed hold of Batman's gauntlets. Bane's eyes glowed blue as he had swiftly caught Batman's hands mid-swing.

Biotic sparks jumped down the krogan's arms as he lifted Batman off the ground, crushing his wrist gauntlets simultaneously. Struggling, Batman put his boots into Bane's chest and activated the propulsion pads on the soles of his feet, rocketing him to the floor behind him.

As Batman flipped himself upright, he remarked at how fast the krogan moved. He glanced at his gauntlets, which were completely destroyed after Bane crushed them. Batman looked back up and was able to nimbly dodge Bane's first swing, but was unable to evade the krogans uppercut.

The large first collided with Batman's gut. Batman let the air out of his chest as he was sure the punch had broken a few ribs. He landed on his knees and hands, breathing heavily. After that things got hazy.

* * *

_5 minutes later_

He awoke in a daze. Everything hurt; his chest, legs, and especially his back. It was all a blur; it happened so fast. He looked down and noted he was still in the Batman armor and surrounded by metal and debris. As he tried to stand he fell down to his knees, grimacing from the pain he felt in his back.

Batman grabbed his side in pain, "…apply automated medi-gel". Tiny needles throughout the inside of the Batman armor injected the soothing medicine into the injured parts of Casey's body. The pain was dulled, but still present as he got back to his feet.

He saw that he was at the bottom of an elevator shaft, along with broken metal beams and wires. The echo-locator inside his helmet chimed as it indicated that something big was heading down the shaft.

Although the medi-gel was starting kick in, he was still in a lot of pain and was just barely able to move out of the elevator shaft and into broken down corridor.

"Alfred, diagnostic check" exhaled Casey under the beaten Batman helmet.

The AI took a few seconds to answer, "It seems you have several fractures and bruises in your back; if not for your fortified armor…it would have been completely broken."

Casey took a deep breath in, "Activate the actuators"

"But Sir-"

"Now Alfred!" Casey demanded as he saw an elevator car make its way down the shaft, stopping on top of the fallen debris. The doors attempted to open, but malfunctioned. The elevator doors started to get bent from the inside.

"Activating eezo-assited actuators" somberly said Alfred. Then a hum arose from the Batman suit as Casey's painful yells echoed through the corridor.


End file.
